SNAPCRAFT | Ch. 15 - Obsessive Rumination

Author's note:

Exceptionally, this week, I'm an HC:P chapter on Wednesday instead of Thursday.

The reason for this is that the first volume of Hidden Class: Pacifist and Planet Ignis are available for free on Amazon!

This is the perfect opportunity to get a free copy or to share these stories with your friends.

I wish you a great week. Thank you for all your support.

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Spring of 346, A.D.

“I see. That’s unfortunate.”

Even after the whole afternoon had elapsed, Alex hadn’t returned to the museum. Kai had at one point gone out to look for him, as the time for the sunset bonfire approached, but eventually gave up. He had gone off the radar.

“Well, you did well thinking of points to present to the others on your own, though,” complimented Albert.

“If I can level with you, Alex’s tantrum was a real moodkiller.”

“He’s been struggling lately. Doubts. It’s not uncommon for someone his age.” Kai frowned. Alex was only two years older than him! Was there such a big difference between being 17 and 19? “What about you, Kai? What do you think about Alex’s words? Do you think he’s right?”

“I get why he’s frustrated. After all, we haven’t scored in the top half of the exams for decades now. That is a reason for concern.”

Albert nodded gravely. “That is a valid point.”

“But at the same time, it feels wrong to only look at the numbers. When I think about what we’ve built and our way of life, it is…” Kai tried looking for the right word. After a few seconds, he gave up on finding a less corny alternative, “Beautiful.”

“Spoken like a true human!” Complimented Albert.

“What do you mean?”

“Do you know why I make such a big effort to hold on to the past, Kai?”

“Isn’t it because you believe that’s how we can pass Daisy’s exam?”

“That too. But there’s a stronger reason. I’ve told you about my origins, haven’t I?”

Kai was unsure for a moment whether this was one of Albert’s signature trailing off or veering off-topic moments. “All you’ve told me is that you’re an exile.”

“Precisely. I don’t remember anything about my childhood. I don’t even know if Albert is my true name. I don’t remember my parents’ faces. I don’t know if I’m an only child or if I have siblings. There’s nothing, Kai—just a big blank. The only vestiges of my past are the fear of shoe polish and knowing that I’ve always enjoyed certain types of food. That’s it.”

Still unsure about whether Albert was still on track, Kai prompted him. “The point being?”

“The point being that I would give everything I have to have those memories back! I want to know what my name is and where I come from. I need to know. Not a day goes by that I don’t think about it. Kai, I promise you that if we let go of the past as Alex suggests, we would deeply regret it.”

Kai pondered over Albert’s words. He could see his point but was still thinking about Alex’s doubts. “But does that mean we must turn a blind eye toward the future?”

“No, Kai, it does not. But never forget where you come from. You are a child of sector 3B, the people of the bonfire.”

Kai’s disquieting thoughts evaporated then and there. He could see how both Albert and Alex were right. Maybe it was up to them, the younger generation, to refine the way of living that their ancestors had invented. He would seek Alex out the following day and discuss possibilities for it. After all, that’s what they did. They debated and refined. That was the way of the bonfire people.

*

353rd Daisy Exams, Round of 256.

Kai held his [Fire] card with pride. From a tiny ember, it had grown massive.

Fire (Rare)

Hp: 8

Vp: 8

Kai searched for anything else he could burn up! After the thought came to him, he chuckled at how pyromaniac he sounded. The only vegetation he had left was [Moss].

Moss (Common)

Hp: 1

Vp: 2

The only recipe he knew for moss was the [Wound Dressing], which offered no victory points. He thought about whether he should throw it into the fire. He decided not to. Since it only had one hit point, it wouldn’t make [Fire] grow. Additionally, not all burned cards seemed to provide [Ash] in return. [Pine Bark], for one, hadn’t. It didn’t look like [Moss] would either.

He just stuck to the recipe he knew.

[Moss] + [Moss]

Moss | Hp: 1→0

Moss | Hp: 1→0

Crafting Successful! You've crafted [Wound Dressing].

He still wasn’t sure what it was used for, but he would figure it out eventually. He might as well make it now and save it for later.

The best part about feeding the succulent and mushroom to the [Fire] was the new [Ash] cards it had generated. He could now use them to make more [Lye].

[Water] + [Ash]

Ash | Hp: 1→0

Water | Hp: 2→1

Crafting Successful! You've crafted [Lye].

[Water] + [Ash]

Ash | Hp: 1→0

Water | Hp: 1→0

Crafting Successful! You've crafted [Lye].

Kai couldn’t stop laughing as he picked the [Mining Wagon] from the discard pile. He didn’t care what the [Mystery Box] card did or didn’t do. He could smell its potential. It hadn’t been easy to figure out that he had to heal the [Train Tracks] card before merging it with [Mining Wagon]. That had to be worth something. He was sure that its use would be revealed to him. But even if it didn’t, getting 12 victory points from the [Mining Wagon] card over to the next stage was an advantage he wasn’t willing to pass on.

[Lye] + [Mining Wagon]

Mining Wagon | Hp: 0→2

Lye | Hp: 4→0

Crafting failed!

[Mining Wagon] + [Train Tracks]

Mining Wagon | Hp: 2→1

Train Tracks | Hp: 1→0

Crafting successful! You've crafted [Mystery Box].

Satisfied with seeing all the synergies he was discovering, he decided to try healing the [Pickaxe] card.

[Lye] + [Pickaxe]

Pickaxe | Hp: 0→2

Lye | Hp: 4→0

Crafting failed!

The time was almost up. Kai grabbed the pickaxe and used it one last time.

[Pickaxe] + [Granite Block]

Pickaxe | Hp: 2→1

Block of Granite| Hp: 1→0

Crafting Successful! You've crafted 2x[Granite Brick].

And he finally stopped. It seemed important to him to keep [Pickaxe] for the next round. It was a card with many potential recipes, and if he had been able to heal it once, chances were he could heal it again.

He sat on the floor and closed his eyes for a few moments. He had made it with five minutes to spare. He felt exhausted. He hoped that the greater number of points he had amassed in this round would be enough for him to rest his mind. He had done everything he could. There was no way that his opponent could make as many points as he had. Right?

A horn blew, signaling the end of the round.

Congratulations! You’ve earned 144 victory points!

The following cards will now be destroyed: 5x[Ash];[Pine Bark]; 2x[Block of Granite];[Dry Pine Needle]; 3x[Infinity]; 2x[Lichen]; 5x[Lye]; 2x[Mirror]; [Pine Tree]; 2x[Shadow]; [Spark]; [Stonerock Succulent]; [Train Tracks]; [Pine Trunk]; 2x[Water]; 2x[Yellow Honey Agaric];

[Fire]’s hp has been halved.

All other cards lose 1hp.

Kai stared at the notifications and sighed. So many of the cards he had created and captured had been completely destroyed after this crafting round. But it had been worth it. He had earned almost three times as many points as he had done in the first round. The only problem was that it still wasn’t going to be enough to buy the 200 victory point upgrade.

But even if he had lost many cards. There were still many others left.

2xSmall Flint (Common)

Hp: 2→1

Vp: 1

Spark (Common)

Hp: 1→0

Vp: 2

Bear Bread (Uncommon)

Hp: 1→0

Vp: 2

2xBig Flint (Uncommon)

Hp: 4→3

Vp: 0

Big Flint (Uncommon)

Hp: 3→2

Vp: 0

Flintstone (Uncommon)

Hp: 3→2

Vp: 1

Flintstone (Uncommon)

Hp: 1→0

Vp: 1

Gaslamp (Uncommon)

Hp: 2→1

Vp: 2

4xGranite Brick (Uncommon)

Hp: 2→1

Vp: 2

Rusty Pickaxe (Uncommon)

Hp: 1→0

Vp: 0

Pond (Uncommon)

Hp: 2→1

Vp: 2

Wound Dressing (Uncommon)

Hp:5→4

Vp:0

Fire (Rare)

Hp:8→4

Vp:11

2xHallucinogen (Rare)

Hp: 1→0

Vp: 5

3xLight (Legendary)

Hp: +∞

Vp: 2

Mining Wagon (Legendary)

Hp: 1→0

Vp: 12

2xMystery Box (??)

Hp: ??

Vp: ??

Too bad for [Fire] being halved. Since it was a special card, it looked like special rules applied to it. Now, all that was left was to see if all his efforts would be enough to get him through to the next round.

The interval between notifications felt like an eternity. He wondered if Daisy was doing this to build up suspense or if it was just calculating everyone’s points. Was that something that took so long to do? Perhaps it was just him. His nerves were stretched taut. That could make the time feel longer.

Congratulations! You’re among the 256 tokens who passed through to the next round.

You have 2 hours and 27 minutes to select your upgrades and rest.

Kai collapsed on the floor and wiped beads of sweat from his forehead. What a relief. He was still in the game. Knowing his efforts had been enough took a massive weight off his shoulders. He hadn’t failed. There was still hope to bring Ariel what they needed.

Like it had happened last time, a console emerged from the ground at the opposite corner of the room. It was time to see what kind of upgrades were waiting for him. All that Kai wanted was to close his eyes and rest, but he needed to see what kind of upgrades he would get.

Compass

Requirements: Reaching the northernmost point in the arena.

Description: A simple compass that points north.

Cost: 10vp

Failed Recipes (Recipe Book Upgrade)

Requirements: To have one failed crafting attempt.

Description: Your recipe book can now maintain a record of all failures in crafting.

Cost: 20vp

Log (Recipe Book Upgrade)

Requirements: Destroy 30 cards in one round.

Description: Your recipe book keeps a record of all the cards you’ve already owned.

Cost: 30vp

Flash

Requirements: [Spark].

Description: Device that produces a brief burst of light.

Cost: 30vp

Shadow

Requirements: [Shadow].

Description: Like Peter Pan, you regain your shadow.

Cost: 50vp

Gaslamp

Requirements: [Gaslamp].

Description: It casts a feeble light.

Cost: 70vp

Photocopy Machine

Requirements: [Mirror].

Description: You can make copies of cards you already have.

Cost: 100vp

Regeneration Chamber

Requirements: To have healed a card.

Description: When inside the chamber, a card can regain 1 hp between rounds.

Cost: 200vp

Scouting Drone

Requirements: Fully explore a map.

Description: Airborne device that aids in map exploration.

Cost: 200vp

Slow Shutter

Requirement: [Light].

Description: Lets more light into the camera.

Cost: 200vp

Shield Phase

Requirements: [Infinity].

Description: Let’s you move past shields.

Cost: 500vp

Mystery Box Fiesta

Requirements: [Mystery Box].

Description: From now on, every map has a hidden mystery box.

Cost: 500vp

Kai studied all the items in the store and then went to lie down for a moment. He had much to think about. Before he rushed toward buying upgrades, he wanted to go through all the discoveries that he had made in this craft arena. He had been rushing from one merge to the next and hadn’t gathered his thoughts yet.

Distancing himself as much as possible from the crafting table and the upgrade console, Kai complained to himself that a bed should have been an upgrade on the list, and he lay on the floor, drawing lines in the air.

There had been two major discoveries in this crafting round. The first one had to do with his [Fire] card. Not all cards stuck to the same set of rules. There were special instances in which cards behaved differently. This card, in particular, consumed all the hp from suitable cards and could grow indefinitely. However, the card lost half its hp from one round to the next.

Then, the next big discovery had been with the [Lye] card. He could heal cards. Even if a card had 0 hp when he captured it, that didn’t mean he couldn’t use it in crafting. It only meant that he had to fulfill a condition first. For plants and corroded metal, [Lye] had done the trick. He grabbed the [Wound Dressing] cards from his inventory. This card was probably similar. The fact that it had a bigger number of stats than other uncommon cards also hinted at it. He put it away.

There had been other more minor conclusions that he had drawn throughout this round. One was that it didn’t make a difference in what order you put the cards on the table. When he had used [Water] and [Ash], he had obtained the same results from merging [Ash] and [Water.]

Finally, he had also learned that certain cards had only a chance of appearing. He couldn’t get [Spark] 100% of the time when he combined [Pickaxe] and [Flintstone]. There was a pre-determined chance of it happening.

With these new rules in mind, he cracked his neck and, standing up, rechecked the console. At the top right corner of the console, he checked the number of points he had to spend. There were 150. That meant that the 5 victory points he hadn’t spent in the last stage had carried over to this stage. He sighed in relief. That was vital information. If he was confident in winning a round, he could choose to save the points for a more powerful upgrade.

Something else he noticed was that every single legendary card he had gotten so far unlocked an upgrade. He let out an appreciative whistle as he looked at the descriptions of the most powerful upgrades in the console. 500 victory points was no joke. But to be able to go through shields? That was potentially broken. That meant he could have access to more places than an opponent. It was a fantastic upgrade.

As for the [Mystery Boxes], he still had no idea of what it was used for. For an upgrade that enabled trialrunners to have a chance at finding more of it to be so expensive, it had to mean that it was valuable. The convoluted process to unlock it also suggested that, to Daisy, [Mystery Boxes] were a precious resource.

No matter how much he stared at the more expensive upgrades, there was no way that he was getting his hands on them now. The first question he had to ask himself was, should he spend all his hard-earned points on upgrades that helped him through the next round? Or should he save them to buy one of the more expensive ones down the road?

More than half of the trial runners had already been removed from the exams. This result already warranted some rewards and resources that his sector needed. But it wasn't enough to revitalize his sector or heal him and Ariel.

They would have to make it to the top 50 for the privilege of bearing children. Only 10% of the sectors were traditionally given the precious hormones each year. Furthermore, they needed to stay alive to raise their children, and the blight wouldn't let them live much longer. The only medicine that worked on the blight was allcure. He would have to make it to the quarter-finals, at the very least, to get that from Daisy. He was in it to win it. There was no sense in saving points. The more he invested in upgrades, the more points he could make down the road.

The upgrade that caught his eye the most was, without question, the [Photocopy Machine].

Photocopy Machine

Requirements: [Mirror].

Description: You can make copies of cards you already have.

Cost: 100vp

He had seen firsthand how powerful the effects of the [Mirror] card were. It was worth it to invest points in an upgrade that enabled him to do that every single round. But before he put his points into it, there was something that was bugging him.

There were two different upgrades that involved lighting the surroundings. There was the [Gaslamp] and the [Flash] upgrades. Why would he be given the choice of two different upgrades that had a similar effect? Could it be that, in future arenas, there would be places that were hidden in the dark? If there was no light, he couldn’t take any pictures and capture cards. The idea of being transported to an arena without light was a real concern.

Worse, it had been several hours since he had entered the exams. If the time inside the exams corresponded to the time outside, that meant that in the next stage of the arena, it would be nighttime. That only aggravated his fear.

The [Photocopy Machine] seemed like the best upgrade and well worth the 100 points, but he was sure there had to be some limitations. For example, did he have to pay victory points to print a card? If that was the case, things could get out of hand quickly, and he could find himself spending all his points without breaking even. Was there a limit on how many photocopies he could take in each round? If so, what was it?

Although his heart was set on getting the photocopier, he decided to trust his judgment.

Are you sure you want to purchase [Flash]? [Y/N]

Are you sure you want to purchase [Gaslamp]? [Y/N]

Kai spent 100 points guaranteeing that he was night-proof for the next round. He just hoped that his investment hadn’t been in vain. He now had 50 victory points left to spend. He looked at the other upgrades that he could purchase. He had just about enough points to buy [Shadow]. He couldn’t think of the difference it made to have a shadow in the arena, but for the upgrade to be there, it had to be worth something, right?

The first two purchases had been made relying on logic. Now, he decided to follow his gut.

Are you sure you want to purchase [Shadow]? [Y/N]

There. There was no going back. With this, he equipped himself as best as possible for the next round. It was time to close his eyes and rest for two hours. He had to get himself back to top-notch condition before he moved on to the next round.

Ch. 14 - Futuristic Skepticism

INDEX

Ch. 16 - Topographical Disorientation