Card Apocalypse 1, Chapter 19 (Patreon)

[Special thanks to Seraphion for some ideas on some stuff in this]

Chapter Nineteen: Nexus City

            Sudden silence greeted Noah, almost shocking after the din of battle. He glanced up, seeing only darkness around him.

            Words flashed, overlaid on the black like every previous announcement of the ‘gods’ had been overlaid on Noah’s vision.

Nexus City Region card is being attuned to the victor. The associated dungeon and its entrance are being generated. One moment please.

            After a second, another message spawned.

Do you wish to accept the Nexus Realm? If so, 1 leveling pip will be spent to increase your deck size.

            Noah silently accepted—he would need it regardless, and he couldn’t take any chance his plan wouldn’t work.

            Then it was daylight, a pleasant smell of nature in the air, and the chirping of birds and the faint sound of flowing water were the only sounds. Noah was standing on a dirt road, next to a single small apartment complex. There were random potholes about the road, and the street just ended to either side. The apartment complex was poorly designed, with an almost layered cake appearance and randomly placed Neon advertisements in English for things like Coke. Two statues, both of a half-cyborg man holding a human baby up, adorned the tiny street to nowhere.

Next to the apartment complex was a massive, twenty-feet wide stair leading down into the dark earth. A half-building covering three sides of the stair, and a thick metal grate across the front barred access. On the edge of the gate was a palm pad.

            Past the tiny fragment of town on one side was the trees of the rattletail forest, and on the other, light cover down the bank for about five hundred feet before hitting the Ashtae river.

            Noah still hurt everywhere. But his relief at simply seeing no enemies couldn’t be overstated. As was his joy at his victory. He could finally head out after Hope. He missed her terribly, and wanted to find her as soon as possible.

But Noah took just moment to stare around, fascinated by the location he suddenly found himself in.

Excited chatter and yells suddenly filled the air. Noah glanced around, and goblins were everywhere. A good three or four hundred of them, far more than Noah would have expected to be left, had appeared. They occupied every piece of the street around him.

It worked, it worked, it worked!! Noah gibbered in his own mind. He had thought it would, and if the ‘gods’ could stitch whole worlds onto Arena they could surely move a couple hundred goblins.

But his gut hadn’t really believed—it was too far from Noah’s normal experiences for him to be comfortable with it.

But I saved most of them. If I hadn’t been there, everyone that just appeared next to me would have been slain or enslaved, and their cards stolen.

Lika appeared next to him silently. She glanced around, then threw her arms around Noah, hugging him fiercely for a second. But both Noah and Lika winced, and she gave the slightest chuckle before hobbling back.

Mok was there beside her.

            Lika flipped her hair, the white streak catching the sun as she looked around. “I really wanted to be the one to get the realm… but I suppose saving all my people is worth it. My sisters are utter jackasses, but I still didn’t want them die. And certainly not everyone else.”

            She winked at Noah. “I mean, a lot of potential harem mates are still here.”

Noah giggled semi-hysterically, more in relief than because the joke had been particularly funny, and Lika smiled at him.

Mok said something, and Lika whirled on him, pointing her finger, but dropped it.

Her face fell with her finger, and she sat, hard, on the ground. “I’m gonna miss Kak. Not to mention everyone else, really. Screw the gods. Just… screw them so much.”

I understand that emotional whiplash in my gut. I saved the goblins, but half of them and half my team died. The price was high.

            Before he could articulate his thoughts to Lika, Trevor called out, “Noah, help!”

Noah turned, his vision of Trevor briefly obscured by goblins. But a few goblins moved, and Noah saw that his friend was hunched over Emily. She was lying on the ground, blood pouring from the stump of her bicep—the whole rest of her arm was missing.

            Noah rushed over, no idea what to do. But before Noah could figure it out, Lika ran up as well. She briefly glanced at her own collection of wounds, but then grabbed her very last Heart Cap Healing potion and poured it into Emily’s throat.

            “No one else,” Lika whispered fiercely. “Not if I can help it. The gods can’t have any more.”

            Noah hoped she was right, but doubted it.

            Some of Emily’s numerous wounds healed. Her arm stopped losing blood, and her color returned from ‘grave pallor’ to her normal level of pale.

            But the arm hadn’t returned.

“Thank you,” Trevor said intensely, sitting back on his heels, his voice dripping with emotion. “I can’t believe Matt is gone, but I don’t think I could have handled losing my sister as well. I think I would have just walked into the forest, alone and unarmed.”

Oof. Noah’s fears about Hope coursed through him again.

            Lika nodded to Trevor, repeating, “No one else.”

Then she glanced around, hands on hips, and gave a dismissive toss of her head to the buildings around them. “This is what we were trying to win?”

            Noah stared at the tiny apartment complex, underground entrance, and random broken road. It was entirely underwhelming.

            But, as Noah stared at the tiny building around him, a card appeared in his vision, washing away his other thoughts for a few seconds.

Nexus City

Unique Legendary equivalent Tier-1 equivalent Golem/Mortal [Cyber, Scavenged] Prime Realm

0 Power

Matching Building Types: Mortal, Golem, Lightning, and subtypes Cyber and Scavenged.

This realm currently supports 10 people. Each of them will have basic water, sewage, and power, so long as conditions that allow that exist within the reach of the Realm, with low overall quality. With any Power building, this realm will have extensive entertainment and transportation available, and its general quality will increase to high.

Special: Cyber Nexus: Any Golem, Mortal [Civic], Lightning [Power, Weapon] or any subtype [Cyber or Scavenged] building provides fifty percent greater numerical effects.

            Noah stared at the Realm designation, fascinated. A brief pop-up appeared with three Great Game rules.

            Great Game Rule #117: Realm cards have been added to the Great Game. A realm card slot costs 10 leveling pips. No deckbearer may have more than one realm card slot. Realm cards function similar to building cards, but with no defined size and with 3 stats: Matching Building Types, Matching Buildings, and Population Support. The size of a Realm increases proportionally to its Population Support. Only the Deckbearer or Permitted Individuals may place buildings within a realm. For every matching building placed within the realm, the Matching Buildings stat of the realm increases by one and the deckbearer may add one Permitted Individual. Each realm will support a population equal to its Population Support stat in its described style and with its described capability, rising in quality as total population increases. A Realm's Population Support stat is equal to 10 + (Matching Buildings)^3. Realm cards are Null cards in the great game. Unless the card specifies otherwise, realms may not overlap. If a Deckbearer with a Realm card dies, the Realm transfers to an assigned Permitted Individual if they have an open Realm card slot, they are not destroyed except by suicide and certain monsters.

            Great Game Rule #118: When a deckbearer with a Realm card dies, the realm card, if in play, remains regardless of the method of destruction, as do the buildings, and the realm remains static until a new deckbearer adds the card to their deck.

            Great Game Rule #119: Prime realms give one free building slot to the deckbearer whose deck they’re part of, and buildings played into them from the primary deckbearer give the entire realm one additional effect if of uncommon quality or higher.

Noah did a brief mental calculation. If I had three buildings that would take fifteen leveling pips; and if everyone that I permitted had two buildings as well, that would mean that we would have nine buildings… nine times nine is eighty-one, times nine is seven-hundred-and-twenty-nine. Plus ten. Not that many by metropolis standards, but still not bad. Plus, I could always get more buildings.

            “How good are building cards?” Noah asked Lika.

            She had been staring at nothing, which Noah assumed meant Lika was also looking at the realm card.

After a moment, she shook her head briefly and then answered. “You’ve seen two of the most common ones yourself—they just go up from there. The stupid Fisher’s Hut gave my entire goblin tribe a means to live, even if there was a limit to how many could live off it. And, again, those were common and tier-one. Build cards are incredibly rare, since all specialty card types have a very low appearance rate. But, still, building cards can be amazing.”

She stared out at the goblins around her, her eyes watering. “Building cards can save your people.”

Noah wasn’t normally touchy-feely guy, but he walked over and hugged Lika to him. She let it happen for a few moments, then pushed off, her face clear.

“We have a ton of work to do. If my mother made it over, we can place the Fisher’s Hall again on the river. But we’ve got no boats or fishing poles—we’re gonna start to starve really soon. Again, I really appreciate you saving my people… but we didn’t get tools when the gods moved us here.”

Noah grimaced. I want to save everyone, but I need to go rescue Hope.

            Noah turned to Trevor. “Can you run to the side of the river near the farms and signal the, um, Remnants of Emporia?” God that sounds stupid, Noah thought. “I mean, just signal the people and get the boat over here? I need to go talk to Kevin about everything.”

            “Take care of Emily, okay?” Trevor asked.

            Noah nodded, and Trevor stood and starting making his way from the mass of goblins toward the five farms.

            Noah walked up to the giant metal grate in front of the stairs leading below the earth.

            As he got close, words formed over the entrance.

            “Lost Temple of Mechos, Dungeon Level 1-65. Area 1 entrance.”

            Noah had a sudden thought. Where are the two extra cards the words promised me?

            He checked pockets but found nothing, and briefly glanced around at the goblins everywhere—including the spot he’d first appeared in this world. If they appeared on the ground they’re gone.

Another thought struck him, and Noah pulled up his deck. Further words appeared across his vision.

Deckbearer Noah Jerome Smith card list:

            Companion Cards: 1

Recovery and Enforcement Droid Seven

            Mantle: 1

                        Post-Apocalyptic Cyborg

            Creature Cards: 6

1x Reclaimer Golem Tier-2

2x Scavenged Battle Bot

2x Human Scavenger

1x Goliath Scrap Bot

1x ???

            Immediate Cards: 1

                        1x Short Circuit

            Persistent Cards: 1

                        1x Scrap Yard

            Building Cards: 1

                        1x Museum of the Fall

            Realm Cards: 1

                        1x Nexus City.

Museum of the Fall

Unique Rare equivalent Tier-1 Building

Null Card: This card may not be played in the Great Game but remains in deck.

This card may hold up to twenty-five Golem [Cyber] or Golem [Scavenged] cards, all of which must be from the Cycle of the Beginning, First Fall cards. Each card must have a different name. Each card added is removed permanently from the great game. This museum is 10,000 sq. feet + 6,000 square feet for each ten cards contained therein, with a floor for each additional ten cards.

The cards manifest inside the building as museum display pieces.

The Deckbearer gains Golem power equal to the cube root of the different cards contained herein.

“We must learn from the past before we can move forward. In this case, quite literally.”

            Noah was amazed as he stared at it. If I find and put eight cards into this, I’ll gain three power—two for the cube of eight, and plus fifty percent for the Nexus Realm. This is huge. It makes up for the wasted levels even if I was to take a building slot directly, no question.

            “How do I place buildings?” Noah asked Lika.

            “Pull your deck and switch till you get the card. Touch it when looking where you want to place it.”

            Noah nodded, doing just that.

            An overlay appeared, the outline of a building. The Museum was a large, about the width of five houses on each side, but only a story tall. Noah moved it around until he was able to position it. He placed it to the side of the entrance leading down into the depths, and then willed it appear.

            The building appeared, and a few goblins yelled. A knife flew out, awkwardly after everyone else was silent, and struck the metal façade of the building, bouncing off.

            The building was set on a huge concrete slab, with an escalator leading up to the front door. The rest of the building was metal, with no windows. The front had a huge door with an iris-lens doorway and two columns of glass that showed holographic images of cards, rising and falling up the glass column, cycling through them constantly.

            At the same time, the broken asphalt road extended a bit, covering the front of the museum, and a small house popped up on the other side of the apartment.

            Lika walked up beside him as Noah stared at the museum.

            “I know I don’t have a building card yet, but… can I be one of your appointed?”