Chapter 101

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Chapter 101: The Grand Opening

On the day of the Card Master Festival, in the royal capital.

The royal capital today was especially strange.

Usually, the royal capital is bustling with busy figures everywhere – there are hurried office workers, shop owners, unemployed wanderers on the streets, and loud laughing adventurers.

But today, most areas were empty, especially of adventurers, as if they had disappeared into thin air.

Three districts, on the other hand, were lively and crowded with stalls. Each stall had certification from the Alchemist Union, and each stall owner wore the Alchemist Union emblem on their chest.

In addition to these, there were many food stalls, restaurants, clothing stores, and others that were exceptionally busy.

The Card Makers present were a diverse group – there were noble sons like Karoso, nobles with titles, royal family members, S-class Card Makers certified by the Alchemist Union, as well as high-ranking members of the Alchemist Union itself.

The Alchemist Union is the largest organization in the world, unmatched by any other.

Ever since the rules of Card God appeared, fighting with cards has become normal. Kingdom of Persia has always been enthusiastic about studying cards and recruiting professionals.

To them, Grand Duke Osiris, who relies on large armies and iron for battles, stands out as different, similar to how the Qing Dynasty used to look down on foreign things.

The Alchemist Union, which has information on all Card Makers in the world, is a loose organization with no ambitions, thus becoming the biggest and most popular organization.

Of course, today’s main character is not the Alchemist Union, but a plain-looking stall.

"Sir, I did my best…" Kirmin kept apologizing to Karoso, "Today’s stall is really tense, there isn’t a Card Maker below Tier 3 on the whole street, they are all well-known."

"And, a marquis himself is setting up a stall with a sign, I…"

"I understand," Karoso said, "It’s already good enough."

Karoso’s stall is unique; there are no cards on it, but behind him is a large vehicle that looks like an armored car…

The front of the vehicle is made of alloy, and the back has a huge space, which is Karoso’s mobile laboratory.

Karoso had trouble finding a spot for his stall, that’s why he needed a super large parking space.

"I’m running out of materials, I need some new ones, can you see if you can purchase some for me?" Karoso handed a piece of paper to Kirmin.

"Hmm…" Kirmin took the paper.

It was easy to buy materials, even though today was the Card Master Festival, regular card makers had already purchased everything they needed, or they were selling ready-made cards, but only Karoso wanted to make them on the spot.

"I mean, isn’t your way of doing things a bit unusual?" Teresa chewed on a blade of grass, lounging on a deck chair, swaying back and forth. "No one else plays like you do."

"Just wait until you see the effects of the cards I’m selling," Karoso smiled slightly.

"Big brother, what kind of cards should we customize?" Neymar asked curiously.

"Any race, any profession, minions or spells, there are no limits," Karoso said. "The effects that can be customized include… reducing the mana cost of specific cards by using other spells or drawing cards, Elegy: card draw, customization available for cards with three stars or less."

"Great!"

Neymar nodded obediently, then started to write carefully on the sign.

Neymar’s handwriting was elegant, although Karoso’s handwriting was good too, it was not as good as Neymar’s, who often copied spells.

As for Teresa… her handwriting was readable.

It could be said that the court teachers had given up on Teresa from the beginning.

The Teresa holding a sword and the Teresa holding a pen were completely different people.

"What price are we looking at?" Neymar continued.

"From one hundred Magic Crystal Coins to one thousand Magic Crystal Coins, per card," Karoso replied.

"One hundred… wait, did you say from one hundred Magic Crystal Coins to one thousand Magic Crystal Coins?" Neymar thought Karoso had made a mistake, looking at him in astonishment. "It’s Magic Crystal Coin, not Forged Coin, right?"

A three-star card for one hundred Magic Crystal Coins, shouldn’t that be at least an Epic Card!

From a price range of 100,000 to 1 million for a single three-star card, who normal person could afford that?

However, at today’s grand event… it might be possible.

"You want to customize high-end cards?" Teresa raised an eyebrow.

If it’s a Legend Card, 1000 Magic Crystal Coins are reasonable, but for an Epic Card, 100 Magic Crystal Coins is a bit high, the materials needed are right there.

Actually, unless a Card Maker is selling unique and very useful cards, they don’t make that much money.

Unfortunately, this profession has been around for too long, and it’s too crowded.

When the Card Maker profession first emerged, the prices were ridiculous, all sorts of prices were seen.

But with more Card Makers, things changed. To compete, they started lowering their prices, some with high success rates went crazy with production, while some with low success rates ended up bankrupt from practicing card-making.

This situation improved when the Alchemist Union merged with the Card Association.

The qualifications for being a Card Maker have become higher, so there are fewer Card Makers, entering a stable period.

And now, the profit of Card Makers is fixed, making it hard to have unusual prices.

"No, only make gray, white, blue," Karoso shook his head.

"I say, are you here to cause trouble?" Teresa said with a wry smile, "One thousand Magic Crystal Coins, why don’t you go rob? A seven-star blue card costs about one thousand Magic Crystal Coins."

"Do you want to try?" Karoso smiled, "It’s definitely worth it."

"Better not!" Teresa quickly waved her hand, "We have a type of wine called Heartache. I once spent two thousand Forged Coins to buy a glass, only to find out it was just ordinary vodka, the most ordinary kind. Then the bartender asked me if I felt heartache, I wanted to hit him."

"I say, if you want to pursue individuality, you also need to consider the place. Acting like this might really not attract any attention."

Just then, a man dressed in a gentleman’s suit passed by Karoso’s stall and couldn’t help but exclaim.

"Your Elegy card turn, is it a minion?" The man flicked his hat brim and looked at Karoso.

"Yes," Karoso nodded.

"Interesting, can a follower be neutral?" The man looked at Karoso with interest.

"Yes."

"How many Magic Crystal Coins?" The man said as he took out a bag of money from his pocket.

"One thousand Magic Crystal Coins."

"Make one."

Click.

The man placed the Magic Crystal Coins on the table.

"Okay." Karoso said and then took Neymar into the car’s trunk to make the card.

"There are really people buying." Teresa was in shock.

"This type of card is very valuable for research." The man’s eyes focused on Teresa and he smiled, saying, "Hello, Her Royal Highness Princess Teresa, I am Harold York, belonging to the Alchemist Union and Card Masters Association, and the president general of the Linton Province in the Numenor Kingdom."

He took off his hat and bowed to Teresa.

The man knew Teresa, but not Karoso, a princess of the empire, and the most famous one at that. She had more fame than a duke’s son.

"Hello." Teresa reluctantly stood up and returned the bow.

"Canglang Province invented cards that can be upgraded, exchanging one three-star card for two unknown Star Level cards. This is a great invention. The stronger a person is, the more they care about this card." Harold York said, "Clearly, that gentleman just now knew the materials and magic array for upgrading cards, otherwise he wouldn’t have applied it to his followers."

"Unfortunately, even if someone knows about the existence of upgrade cards and wants to replicate the effect and appearance of the card, it will still take a long time."

The cards are now on sale, and similar cards will likely be available in about a year.

After using a card, one can feel the magical fluctuations on it. By following these magical fluctuations and experimenting slowly, one can create cards with upgrade effects. Once epic or high-level cards are made, one can study how to make lower-level cards step by step.

When this thing appears, it’s not so hard to copy. But this year, three powerful forces have made plenty of money.

Also, having control over the forces that produce Greedy Hand will help them develop other powerful cards faster than others. It’s estimated that in about a month, other powerful cards will start to be released one after another.

It can be said that this market has already been dominated, and other forces will only get a small share.

"It’s rare to see anyone make a card that speeds up my research. Starting from the minions to reverse engineer, it saves me a lot of trouble," Harold smiled. "So, this card is worth one thousand Magic Crystal Coins."

"Isn’t it because of our identities?" Teresa’s gaze was a bit strange.

"Identity? No no no, there are too many people with identities on these streets," Harold quickly shook his head. "Friendship is important, and Magic Crystal Coins are important too."

"You must know that even if you research this thing, you won’t make much money, right?" Teresa raised an eyebrow.

"Because I am someone who truly loves making cards, but unfortunately I lack talent, and I am still just an A-class Card Maker," Harold said somewhat regretfully. "Managing the guild has taken up too much of my time."

The two of them started chatting.

In less than two hours, Karoso came out with a card.

[Title: Stingy Treasure Hunter]

[Type: Follower]

[Race: Gnome]

[Star Level: 3]

[Quality: Blue Rare]

[Occupational Restriction: None]

[Description: When this follower dies, draw a card.]

"It’s a really good card," Harold said regretfully, "Too bad, at the Card Master Festival, it’s a rule that you can only buy one card from each Card Maker, otherwise I would have liked to buy another one."

"If you really love something so much, you can ask someone else to help you buy it," teased Teresa.

Each person can only buy one card from a Card Maker, this is to protect more Card Makers and help them have business.

Of course, it also prevents one Card Maker from making a lot of cards at once, taking advantage of the trading day, and then the merchants importing goods directly to avoid taxes.

Finding someone to buy on your behalf is a common practice, there are always ways to deal with policies.

"I also want to respect the research results of other Card Makers," Harold said, if it weren’t for being poor, who wouldn’t want to buy more of these?

Karoso’s cards are a bit too expensive, it hurts a bit.

"Wait a minute, this card of yours actually has a servant’s race label?" Harold suddenly noticed something wrong.

"Well, it’s just some small tricks, nothing groundbreaking," modestly said Karoso.

"Hmm, it’s a nice invention to have an extra line of text on the card," Harold said, "Who invented it? If this can be shared, the Alchemist Union will have a nice reward."

"My friend invented it," Karoso said, indicating that this thing was also invented by Null and 『』, he just made it appear earlier.

This is not a big discovery, it just makes things clearer for people, so they don’t have to guess based on their looks or appearances.

When he has time, Karoso plans to submit this and should be able to earn a good amount of money.

"The value of this card would be greater if you could draw a card when you summon a minion," Harold said sadly.

Karoso smiled without saying a word.

He could indeed create that kind of card, netizens are really good at it, they call this ability ‘battlecry.’

However, Karoso plans to keep this kind of card for himself for now.

"You are a good Card Maker," Harold handed Karoso a business card.

"Numenor… Elven Kingdom," Karoso put away the business card, somewhat surprised, "How did you get here?"

"Of course I will join this grand event, there are many Card Makers from Persia all over the world," Harold said with a smile.

"Had fun playing," Karoso put away the money.

Harold nodded, waved goodbye to the group, left the area, and headed towards other stalls.

"I’m going to look around and see if there’s anything to buy," Teresa patted her face.

"Hmm," Karoso responded.

Due to the unique nature of on-site card-making, Karoso’s stall also attracted many people.

"Custom cards, what kind of game is this?"

"From one hundred to one thousand, blue cards, why not go grab some?"

"That person just bought one…"

"Could it be a trick?"

"Are you asking him to do something…?"

"Wait, Elegy, drawing cards? Can you customize followers? Is it true?"

"Rich people might actually buy it."

"I don’t have money."

"Wow, followers that can be customized, I really want one!"

"Isn’t that the patent of a few major powers?"

"I know this person, Karoso Colloa, the son of Grand Duke Osiris of Canglang Province. The duke really spoils him, even telling him all the card customization formulas."

"Oh, isn’t this my dear Lord Karoso?" At that moment, a slightly irritating voice sounded.

Karoso turned around and saw an acquaintance, Harvey Colin, who had just started school and had a conflict with Karoso. He even tried to harm Karoso, a noble young man, in the dungeon.

"Do you want to customize a card?" Karoso raised an eyebrow.

"Ha, yes, of course I do." Harvey walked up to Karoso and pointed at the sign. "Anything below three stars can be customized, what does that mean?"

"You really are clueless, it means just what it says." Karoso sneered.

"Heh heh…" Harvey chuckled. "You said it yourself, anything below three stars is fair game."

"That’s right," Karoso said.

Harvey squinted his eyes. This kid dared to set up a stall here, I’ll make sure he looks bad, no matter what.

Zero stars, that counts as below three stars, right?