SNAPCRAFT | Ch. 10 - Stonehenge
Added 2023-10-13 17:11:59 +0000 UTCAutumn of 345, A.D.
Daisy’s cyber-monkeys and cyber-dogs went about the museum as they did throughout the city, keeping everything neat and organized. The museum was one of the biggest buildings in the capital. In the vast space, losing track of the others was easy. After each exam, the size of the exhibit only grew.
Kai and Alex had once tried estimating how many years would be needed before this building would be at full capacity. Alex’s theory was that Daisy had already considered how long humanity would survive when she had designed the building and that by figuring the number out, they would know how long Daisy predicted that mankind had left to live.
After running the numbers and taking the measurements, they found that the museum had space for about a hundred more exhibits. If Alex’s theory was right, humanity only had one century left. The estimate rang true to Kai. He wasn’t sure about the other sectors, but they were on their last leg. From a population of millions, only two hands full of people remained.
Kai shook his head and tried to get away from the prophecies of doom and return to his studies. He was looking for a past exam that highlighted the value of perspective. He looked over the maquette built based on the account of their trial runner who had participated in the 15th Daisy Exams.
At that period of history, it was very common for Daisy to test cooperation. That carried over to many early exams, including the 15th edition. In the 15th exam, Daisy organized the 1000 sectors into 20 teams of 50 and tasked them with rebuilding a monument.
The celebratory maquette was positioned on top of a sturdy table, allowing a good view of the scenario. This maquette, in particular, had a circular arrangement of upright stone pillars, each standing about as tall as a human hand. Kai tried to make sense of the pattern in which the stones had been laid but couldn’t figure out their purpose. All he could say was that there was something ancient and mysterious about it, and he couldn’t stop looking at it.
The attention to detail the historians put into their maquettes never ceased to amaze Kai. Tiny grooves and markings were carved in the stones to make them look weathered and ancient. They had made the grass carpet surrounding the stones out of moss. Once a week, Albert trained Ariel to be the next historian, and she often came with wonderful stories to share. He was glad he wasn’t the one doing this. There was no way he would be able to make something so delicate.
Kai leafed through the report that the trial runner had written. It hadn’t been easy to construct the monument, knowing that each team member was graded on their contribution. Throughout the challenge, there was a lot of backstabbing and attempts at credit hoarding.
That year, their trial runner had only gotten into the top 800s, and he had brought home enough hormones for 100 couples. Back then, the world population was bigger, and even such a low score already gave them such a precious resource.
Kai tried thinking of how a shift in perspective could have helped the trial runner to have done better this year. He had opted to fight for leadership. Should he just have played ball and follow the leadership of others?
“That wasn’t a good year for us. Was it?”
Kai jumped in fright at the appearance of Albert. “Albert! You scared me. How long have you been standing there?”
“I’m sorry, my boy. You were so focused that I didn’t want to disturb you.”
Kai took heavy breaths and tried to calm his galloping heartbeat.
“How I would have liked to be in that one. Stonehenge has always fascinated me.”
“Stone edge?”
“Stonehenge. It’s the name of the monument.”
“What was it for? I can’t figure it out.”
“Haha. You’re not the only one who can’t. I would love to hear Daisy’s take on it.” He spared a glance at a cyber-monkey who eavesdropped on their conversation. “But her majesty only listens. She never speaks. Isn’t that right, you old hag?” The cyber-monkey regarded them blankly. “I remember when…” Albert trailed off. Sometimes Kai felt that Albert was like an old machine that got stuck and required a kick or a punch to start over.
“Stonehenge, Albert! You were going to tell me about Stonehenge!”
“Oh, right. Right. Well, no one knows for certain what it was used for. There are many theories. The one I agree with the most is that it was an observatory.”
“An observatory?”
“Due to its precise alignment with astronomical events, some historians say that Stonehenge functioned as an astronomical observatory. It could have been used for tracking lunar eclipses, solar events, or the changing seasons. They say they would use the information for agriculture and timekeeping.”
“I see…”
“Others say it was a burial place, a religious center, a display of power. The list goes on.”
Kai now paid attention to how the yellow glow of the lamp cast shadows on the rocks, leaving black streaks on the field of green. “I was just trying to think of how perspective could have helped the trial runner that year.”
“Hmmm… I suppose that if they had an idea of what they were building it for, it could have helped them do better.”
“Do you think he thought of their replica of Stonehenge as an observatory?”
Albert remained silent.
“Albert! I’m talking to you!”
“Oh, right. Right. What was the question again?”
*
353rd Daisy Exams, Round of 256.
Capture successful!
Tries left: 12 of 20
Flintstone (Uncommon)
1 of 3
Hp: 3
Vp: 1
Capture successful!
Tries left: 11 of 20
Flintstone (Uncommon)
2 of 3
Hp: 3
Vp: 1
It looked like his opponent hadn’t come across this rock or had simply failed to notice it. It couldn’t always be the other guy that got lucky. Right? Happy with the discovery, Kai studied the new card. So the rock was flint. He knew that it could be used to fashion tools and start fires. It was a good discovery.
Kai noticed how this card, too, had high hp and low vp. Kai took this as another hint that the crafting arena would make or break this round. Satisfied that there was nothing else about the flintstone he could capture, he resumed his march.
As Kai walked through the maze of rock cubes, he fiddled with the map and discovered he could zoom in and out of the map. He zoomed it out as much as possible to track his exploration. He guessed he had already gone through 70% of the map. It had already been one hour since he landed on this snapping arena.
As he quickly counted his accumulated victory points, he realized that he had only secured 14 points so far. It wasn’t too impressive, but he still had half of the time on the clock remaining. He wondered what kind of score his opponent had.
As the minutes ticked, the sun dove farther into the west and shone a darker yellow. Kai wondered how Ariel was doing. She was already in stage two of the blight and was in constant pain. She surely was worried about him right now, too. He also thought about whether there had been someone else among the inhabitants of his sector who would have been a better fit for this year’s challenge. He was certain he was the better fit between him and Ariel. Ariel wasn’t good at thinking out of the box, no matter how hard she tried. She worked better with math and things that could be neatly packed within the confines of the box.
The angle of the light made the shadows of the cubes of rock longer. It made him think of that place that Albert told them about once. What was it called, again? Stone edge? No. Stonehenge. That was it. This quarry reminded him of it. The many pillars of rock cubes and how their shadows stretched on the ground were transporting him to the museum's maquette for the 15th exam. If he wasn’t mistaken, it was on the day when Albert taught them about perspective.
Inspired by his memory, Kai consulted the map in the bottom-right corner of his vision. All the piles of rocks in the quarry were clearly marked. Could there be a pattern to the layout of the rocks? Squinting, he found nothing. Perhaps he had to complete the whole map before spotting a pattern. Who knew? Maybe he could get a rare card for doing that.
Kai crossed one of the shadows of the rock cubes and stopped. Perspective. He turned and studied the dark silhouette left by the pillar in the ground. What if, instead of trying to capture the rocks, he tried to capture their shadows? How hadn’t he thought of this earlier? Kai positioned himself against one pile of rock and aimed at the ground. Once he was happy with the framing, he went for it.
Capture successful!
Tries left: 10 of 20
Shadow (Common)
3 of 4
Hp: 0
Vp: 3
It turned out that his opponent had already had this idea. They were good. Luckily, the card was common. It made sense. After all, there were shadows everywhere in this arena. It wouldn't be fair if [Shadow] had been considered anything other than common. That meant Kai didn’t have to worry about all the [Shadow] cards from the pool being scooped up. He could just wait until near the end of this round, and if he was a few shots short, he could take a picture of his shadow for some extra points. The point rate was the same as for the [Lichen] card. It was a card that granted points but was useless for crafting.
Kai gasped as he stepped out of the shadow of the rock pile. He realized that something important was missing! He hadn’t noticed until now because he kept looking up and into the distance, but after photographing a shadow, he couldn’t stop seeing it. Kai had no shadow! The light was passing right through him.
Not having a shadow accentuated the feeling that he wasn’t a part of this world. Did that mean the camera wouldn't capture it if he took a picture of himself? After all, if light just went through him, that meant he was invisible to the camera, right? He fought the urge to find out. His opponent was no joke, and he couldn’t afford to take risks. The fact that they had thought of taking a photo of the shadows showed that.
For now, he would just trust his reasoning and save his precious tries. Soon enough, Kai had finished running through the whole quarry. He bumped into two more flintstone boulders, but other than that, he found nothing else of interest. All that remained to be explored was about half of the edge of the map. He had covered the area between 12 and 6 o’clock; now, only the other half was left.
Kai hadn’t seen any more ponds. The discovery unsettled him. He had hoped that there would be more than one. That would have meant his opponent had just stumbled on a good opportunity and had a lucky break. It seems that wasn’t it. His opponent was capable.
The chances for them to spawn next to the treasure trove were slim. Still, the enemy trial runner had found the center first. This could mean they had map and compass upgrades or even better. That in turn meant they had a better score in the previous stage than Kai. The opponent’s capability wasn’t a good omen for Kai.
Reaching the wall at the northernmost point of the arena, Kai put his hand against it. He took a deep breath and pressed on. He was very close to finishing this arena. He would finish exploring it and then decide where to spend his shots. Kai didn’t take his hand off the wall as he kept marching. Going through rocks and water and having no shadow was starting to make him feel as if he were an ethereal ghost. To be able to feel the grain of the rock was comforting. It made him feel real. Kai ignored the many patches of moss, lichen, and succulents he ran into.
As he was about to reach the westmost point of the arena, his hand went through the rock, making him almost stumble and fall. As he regained his balance, Kai pressed his hands against the rock wall again. What was going on? Wasn’t the rock wall the edge of the arena? He looked in the distance. The rock wall seemed to maintain a perfect curvature. He grinned. “Daisy, Daisy, Daisy. I knew you were hiding something from me.”
Kai leaned in fully against the rock wall and eventually felt the wall that marked the end of the arena. The illusion of the rock wall reached his elbow. He kept his hand against it and kept walking. As he walked, the distance between the edge of the arena and the rock wall grew, and more and more of his arm disappeared into the stone.
When his head entered the rock hologram, all became dark. He kept walking. Eventually, as suddenly as his vision had darkened, he arrived at a dimly lit chamber. There were tracks on the ground that disappeared into the barrier beyond his reach. Thick beams of wood gave structure to the passageway, and lamps placed at different intervals provided the light that allowed him to see all of this. He had just discovered a hidden place in this arena. It was a mine!
