SNAPCRAFT | Ch. 17 - Cartesian Doubt

Spring of 346, A.D.

Since Kai had surprised Alex and they had started talking again, he resumed participating in the bonfires. His sister had already come to thank Kai for what he had done, leaving him a little embarrassed. He couldn’t say that pleasing Ariel had been the driving force behind his efforts to reach Alex, but it was a plus.

Kai was the firekeeper today. He was the only firekeeper who was unpredictable. He could talk about history one day, and the next,  His classes went from practical to theoretical. And whatever field he chose, he did better than even those who devoted their lives to that specific field of knowledge.

“Today, we’ll talk about Descartes. What do you remember about him? Yes, Ariel?”

“He was a French philosopher, mathematician, and scientist. We get the name of the Cartesian system from him.”

“Good. Very good. His accomplishments in Math were remarkable. However, we’ll focus a little more on his work with philosophy today.”

Kai spared a look at Trudy, the resident philosopher of the group. He wondered why Kai went out of his way to teach things other people in the group already taught. It was as if he was trying to prove a point to them.

“Descartes was troubled by the possibility that the knowledge and beliefs of his time were untrue. Therefore, he sought a method to attain certain knowledge. To achieve this, he decided to doubt everything that could be doubted, including his senses, his beliefs, and even the existence of the external world. He believed he could remove preconceived notions and prejudices through radical doubt.

“Descartes did something that most are too afraid to try. He dared to demolish his beliefs and build them anew. Today, I propose we do just that. I want us all to forget everything we know about Daisy, the Turnover, the exams, and how we prepare for them. Let’s meet again at the bonfire and report our conclusions.”

*

353rd Daisy Exams, Round of 128.

Kai had always imagined oases as lakes in the middle of the desert, surrounded by palm trees. There was no water nor palm trees to be seen. There was just enough vegetation to hint at the presence of underground water or the propensity for this area to collect more moisture than the surroundings.

Kai hurriedly explored the oasis, looking for something extraordinary, something different from a bush. Finally, he found something. There was one lone tree sitting in the oasis. Compared to the pine trees of the first snap arena, this one was much shorter.

The branches also spread more horizontally, creating a labyrinth of leaves, wood, and spiny thorns. This tree was a fortress of the desert.

He peeked into the scoreboard and saw his opponent still stuck at 89 points. Even though they had used a stun grenade upgrade and were ahead in points, Kai guessed they didn’t have any upgrade similar to his gaslamp. If that were the case, that would explain how Kai had found this place faster than they had.

He readied the camera and framed the whole tree in it. A brilliant light erupted as it activated, illuminating the space around him even more and dazzling Kai.

Capture successful!

Acacia Tree (Uncommon)

Acacias are known for their resilience and beautiful, fragrant flowers.

Tries left: 19 of 20

1 of 3

Hp: 3

Vp: 1

Kai blinked his eyes a few times. He had been caught unprepared by the flash of light and lost his vision for a moment. He rubbed his eyes, and the little dots blurring his vision faded.

Was this the result of the [Flash] upgrade? Would the capture have been considered a failure if he hadn’t purchased it before this arena? If that was the case, did that mean his opponent had also bought the flash upgrade?

Beads of sweat formed on his forehead. Had he known the gravity of the decision to purchase the gaslamp and flash upgrades, he would have spent more time pondering it. He gulped. It's true that he had deduced that it would be nighttime at this stage, but he was very close to purchasing one of the other upgrades. He was lucky. This was a powerful reminder. He had to stay focused. Every decision mattered in the exams.

With clearer vision, he turned his attention to the new feature in his cards. There was a simple sentence with basic information about the captured object. So that’s what the second upgrade of the mystery box did. The description wasn’t too informative, and he couldn’t see the point of being reminded that the flowers of the acacia tree were beautiful. Unless the tree was flowering... Just in case, he raised the gaslamp in his hand, trying to spot any flowers in the tree, but found nothing.

Between the scoreboard and this upgrade, he preferred the former. The text description of the cards wasn't any prime information that couldn't be gleaned using logic or having good general knowledge. Still, it was something, and time would tell if there were any hints for recipes here.

Kai reined in his thoughts. He thought back to the first moments of the snap arena. Using the stun grenade and the scoreboard suggested that his opponent was looking for this place. Kai decided he wouldn’t let his opponent get the other shots of the tree and quickly went for another shot.

Capture successful!

Acacia Tree (Uncommon)

Acacias are known for their resilience and beautiful, fragrant flowers.

Tries left: 18 of 20

2 of 3

Hp: 3

Vp: 1

Another burst of light illuminated the oasis. This time, Kai was ready for it and kept his eye hidden behind the viewfinder, trying to glimpse anything else worth capturing. The camera protected his eyesight this time. He spotted nothing that the weaker light of the gaslamp hadn’t already revealed.

Looking at the first two cards in his inventory, Kai smiled happily. He had managed to get two uncommon cards. It wasn't a bad way to start this round. Even if his opponent found this place, he would only get the one remaining picture of the [Acacia Tree]. It was time to figure out its next move.

Due to the tree’s smaller height, he could get a good look at its leaves, branches, and thorns. The tree also had a thick bark, which, logic and previous experience would have, he could capture with his camera. He scratched his head. He wasn’t sure if it was wise to occupy half of the shots in his camera with different components of the Acacia tree in one go. But at the same time, what else had he seen on his way here? There had only been dunes and sand.

He settled with a compromise. He would take a picture of each, and if there were a precious card among the separate parts of the tree, he would get a second copy to gain an advantage over his opponent.

He first framed one of the branches, careful not to get much of the other parts of the tree in the picture.

Capture successful!

Acacia Tree Branch (Uncommon)

An acacia branch with exceptional strength and resistance to environmental stressors.

Tries left: 17 of 20

1 of 3

Hp: 4

Vp: 0

Kai studied this card and considered the [Fire] card in his inventory. This could be a good crafting ingredient. He bit his limp, worrying that his opponent might find this place anytime soon, and breaking his own rule as soon as he made it, he went for another picture.

Capture failed!

Tries left: 16 of 20

Kai’s eyes widened. Shoot! It couldn’t be. Had his opponent found the oasis, too? Kai spared a look at the scoreboard. His opponent’s score was already in the high 90s and still climbing. When Kai had been pondering his steps, his opponent arrived at the oasis and started taking pictures of everything he could find, left and right. Kai took a deep breath. This opponent seemed to have a similar aggressive strategy to his previous one. They wanted to get ahead by hoarding cards earlier on. Kai just had to make his blows count.

He had already searched the oasis once but found only bushes that looked the same as what he had seen in other places on the map. He now went for a second search. There could be a layer of complexity hidden in plain sight, just as it had happened in the quarry pond when he got [Water] and [Mirror]. He kept the lamp high above his head and walked slowly. Even after a careful search, he had found nothing. His shoulders slumped. His opponent’s score was already over 100, while he was much lower. He wasn’t sure if this scoreboard upgrade was helping him. It was demoralizing him more than anything else.

As his hands dropped and the gaslamp drew closer to the ground, Kai saw something he had missed. He’d been so caught up trying to get a wide view of his surroundings that he hadn’t looked at the ground beneath him. He squatted and searched for the new finding with his fingers. There were marks on the sand.

They were circular and resembled two crescent moons that elegantly came together in what was almost a heart shape. What was this? Were these footprints? Kai looked at the board above him. His opponent was way ahead of him and had already found the oasis. There was the slight possibility of a second acacia tree somewhere, but Kai doubted that.

If this arena was anything like the quarry, a second hidden treasure trove could be on the map. He couldn’t let his opponent get to it first. These footprints were a clue that he needed to follow quickly. Just in case, he took a picture of it.

Capture successful!

Footprints (Common)

Someone or something has been here.

Tries left: 15 of 20

1 of 4

Hp: 0

Vp: 3

It was a common card. It couldn't be used in crafting, but the point count was good. In fact, it was worth more than all the other three cards he had captured earlier, he realized.

He spared a last longing look at the acacia tree and the oasis. His opponent was aggressive, so he would be the opposite. He would show patience. There was no point in wasting more shots here until he found what other cards were there for grabs in this arena. There would always be time to make it back here.

This time, Kai kept the gaslamp low while he followed the tracks. He followed the tracks up one of the dunes, along its crest, and then down toward another valley. After a few hundred meters, he found where they led. It was shrubbery similar to the one in the oasis. The tracks overlapped here, showing that whatever had left them had walked around the bush.

He found another set of tracks leading away from the shrubbery. It led to another patch of woody grass two hundred meters away. Like last time, the tracks circled the bush a few times and then took off in another direction. He kept going. This looked like the tracks of an animal grazing on the desert's scant grass.

He looked at the scoreboard. His opponent’s score had plateaued at 110. It had been 15 minutes since the challenge began, and he was sure his opponent’s shots were mostly depleted. That didn’t reassure him much, though. From what he'd seen, this arena had few things available for capture.

As Kai went from bush to bush, he looked up at the sky and the stars. He had thought of trying to capture the starry sky, but there was some upgrade needed to do so. Only tiny blurry dots of light appeared when he tried to look at the sky through the viewfinder.

He couldn’t help thinking of what Albert had told him once. Was it Albert, or was it Sunny? Perhaps it was Clara instead. They told him that the universe was a barren desert and that Earth was a lone miracle in the wasteland. Before the Turnover, humanity had sent expeditions out into the unknown and looked for any signs of life in the darkness of space. They had never heard back from any of them.

As he walked from shrub to shrub, he thought of how similar it must have been for those human explorers aboard incredible spaceships. But instead of traversing sand to reach the next shrub, they crossed the emptiness of space to reach the next planet. The thought was amusing to him, and his only regret was that there wasn’t any tangible way to get his emotions through to a card. He was sure that this depth of thought would warrant at least a rare card.

Only in the sixth patch of grass he found what had been leaving the prints. It was an animal, and it was eating the grass, just as he had suspected. After so many hours of seeing nothing but a mining wagon moving, being in the presence of another living creature took Kai’s breath away.

The creature looked otherworldly. There was a long, elegant horn springing from its forehead. The horn was as long as Kai’s arm. As he approached it, he found that there wasn’t just one horn, but two of them. He had approached the creature from an angle where one horn hid the other, creating the illusion that only one horn existed.

The creature had ivory-white fur and black legs. The white fur reflected the eerie glow of the gaslamp, but the black legs absorbed it, resulting in the illusion of a ghostly creature floating in a sea of darkness.

Over the hundreds of hours he had spent being tutored by Clara whenever she was the firekeeper, he had learned about thousands of animals and plants living and extinct. But there were so many of them, and it was impossible to memorize them all. There were millions of species of insects. Even though there were only 6000 mammal species, Kai didn’t know this one. He could see it was some gazelle or antelope, but he couldn’t identify its exact name.

Without a second thought, he took the camera out and pushed the button.

Capture successful!

Arabian Oryx (Rare)

A creature known as the desert’s unicorn.

Tries left: 14 of 20

1 of 2

Hp: 5

Vp: 2

Capture successful!

Ch. 16 - Topographical Disorientation

INDEX

Ch. 18 - Mock Trial