SNAP CRAFT | Ch. 6 - Exam Lottery (Patreon)

Author's Notice:

Today is the premier of Snap Craft on Royal Road. During the first month, I'll release five chapters every week. I hope you enjoy all the chapters. If you want to support this novel further, giving me a follow or rating this novel on RR would be a great help.

Click here.

____________________________________________________________________

Spring of 345, A.D.

The fire was purposefully placed in the square, close to where the announcement would be made. The square could easily accommodate thousands of people, which only made the sight of a smaller group standing around the fire sadder.

Kai studied the group gathered around the fire. They all dealt with the pressure of the impending summons in different ways. Albert and Sunny chatted, pretending nothing big was about to happen today. Neil focused his eyes on the fire, with a fire of his own in his eyes. Trudy went around the fire, checking in on everyone and imparting some last words of wisdom.

As he studied everyone around them, his eyes and Ariel’s met.

“Hey.”

“Hi, Kai.”

Kai sat beside her and was happy to see she didn’t shy away from him. “So… it’s the second year our names are in the lottery. Do you think we’ll be called today?”

“I’m not sure. The thought of going makes me super excited but sick at the same time. Do you feel the same way?”

“To be honest with you, I just feel the sick part.”

Being 17, they had a fresh mind but needed to gain experience. As for the others, they had experience in spades but suffered the limitations that old age brought. The thought of being depended on by everyone around the fire weighed heavily on his young shoulders,

“Well, in case they call us, let’s make the best of it. Right?”

“Yeah. I’m sure you will make a great trial runner, Kai.” She gave him a smile that helped him calm down.

“You too, Ariel.”

Projectors on the tops of different buildings surrounding the square activated. Their beams of light converged on the center of the square, and the giant holographic figure of a woman wearing a sleek uniform appeared.

“Greetings, sector 3B. The time has come for this year’s trials. Only candidates over sixteen qualify for the lottery. This year’s token will be… Neil Ferguson.”

Everyone’s eyes turned toward the old man. His wrinkled hands with sickly blue veins were closed tightly as if he were ready for a fight, and he stood up purposefully. He spared a look at everyone, and Kai noticed that, for some reason, his eyes lingered longer on Sunny. She gave him a nod of acknowledgment, and he limped toward the hologram. Kai looked at where the old man had been sitting. He had left his cane behind.

*

Present, 353rd Daisy exams.

He grabbed one of the common cards.

Pine Tree (Common)

Hp: 2

Vp: 1

It was the [Pine Tree] card, the very first card he had captured. Too bad he couldn’t get a second one. He grabbed it and moved it toward one of the patterns engraved on the tabletop. As soon as the card was near enough, it was suddenly pulled toward it as if a magnet toward metal. As the card made contact with the table, circuit-like patterns spread from the engraving, illuminating the table and making the drawing and symbols in the card more vivid and lifelike.

It seemed he was on the right track. It was time to see what happened when he got two cards on this table. He randomly grabbed another card, [Bear Bread], and put it in the second slot.

Bear Bread (Uncommon)

Hp: 2

Vp: 2

He moved it toward the second engraving, and, like before, the card was sucked in. Circuitry lit up, and the table began shining even brighter than before. A blinding flash erupted, and Kai received a notification.

[Pine Tree] + [Bear Bread]

Bear Bread | Hp: 2→1

Pine Tree | Hp: 2→1

Crafting failed.

Time left in the craft arena: 28 minutes 23 seconds.

Kai blinked a few times. Crafting? He grabbed the two cards he had just used and inspected them.

Bear Bread (Uncommon)

Hp: 1

Vp: 2

Pine Tree (Common)

Hp: 1

Vp: 1

Each of the cards had lost one hp. He took a few steps back from the table and started pacing in the empty room. He was glad that Daisy had given him enough space to do so. So that's what it was. The name of the trial was Snap Craft: logical thinking and creativity. It was all starting to click now.

In the trial's first stage, he had to collect ingredients using a camera. That was the ‘snap’ part of the trial. He had to merge them in the second stage, hence ‘craft.’ Snap craft. He picked up the two cards he had used and looked at the hp again. So that's what this stat was for. The hp stood for how many different crafting attempts a card could withstand.

Now clearer on what hp did, he went through every single card again. Two cards stood out to him. One was [Lichen].

Lichen (Common)

5 of 5

Hp: 0

Vp: 3

So that’s why [Lichen] gave so many points. It couldn’t be used in crafting. To make up for that weakness, it gave a generous amount of points, even though it was a common card. The other card that caught his eye was [Light].

Light (Legendary)

Hp: +∞

Vp: 2

The fact that he had one legendary card with infinite hp suddenly was much easier to appreciate. He could use it in crafting as often as he’d like and never break it. Its ability to withstand multiple crafting attempts made it a valuable practice tool.

But what happened to the cards after each stage? Were they all destroyed after their points were factored in? And what did a successful craft look like? Only discovering more rules of the challenge at every turn, it was time to run some experiments. It was time to get crafting.

Kai studied all the cards on the table.

Pine Tree (Common)

Hp: 1

Vp: 1

2x Moss (Common)

Hp: 1

Vp: 2

Lichen (Common)

Hp: 0

Vp: 3

Dry Pine Needle (Common)

Hp: 3

Vp: 0

Pine Bark (Common)

Hp: 2

Vp: 1

Pine Trunk (Common)

Hp: 3

Vp: 0

Bear Bread (Uncommon)

Hp: 2

Vp: 2

Bear Bread (Uncommon)

Hp: 1

Vp: 2

2x Fly Agaric (Uncommon)

Hp: 1

Vp: 3

Yellow Honey Agaric (Uncommon)

Hp: 2

Vp: 2

Dead Tree (Rare)

Hp: 4

Vp: 3

Light (Legendary)

Hp: +00

Vp: 2

He had 26 victory points. For a moment, he pondered if this whole ‘craft arena’ was a trap set by Daisy. Could he have more to gain from sitting back and doing nothing? He drummed his fingers on the table. He wanted to think ‘26’ was a respectable number, but it was dangerous to lay back and not work his hardest. He scratched his head helplessly. Even though he had tried his hardest in the arena, the thought of it not being enough was heartbreaking. He should at least figure out how this part of the trial worked.

He studied all his cards and tried to imagine the possible combinations he could go for. Some just didn’t make sense. Unfortunately, despite being his only legendary card, he was pretty sure that [Light] wouldn’t go with anything. Mushrooms didn’t like light. Moss did need light, but not too much, and he was afraid of trying to mix them. He couldn’t think of any good combinations involving the [Dry Pine Needles], [Pine Bark], or [Pine Trunk] cards either.

On the other hand, there were some recipes here that he could picture working. He had three kinds of mushrooms, and he felt good about trying to combine them. He remembered that bear bread mushroom was edible if cooked, but he was pretty sure both agaric mushrooms were poisonous. It didn't make sense to him to mix poisonous with non-poisonous, so he set aside the [Bear Bread] card.

He picked up his [Fly Agaric] and [Yellow Agaric] cards. He could see these two working together. Even the names of the cards were similar. That had to count for something, right?

His greatest concern was what happened once a card reached 0hp. Even though [Yellow Agaric] had 2hp, the problem was that [Fly Agaric] only had 1hp. On the one hand, [Lichen] had 0 hp and hadn’t burnt to ashes. That was a good sign. But he wasn’t sure if capturing a card with only 0hp was different from getting a card’s health points down through crafting. What if once he merged both together, and it went from 1 to 0, the card was destroyed?

In addition to that, [Fly Agaric] offered him 3 points! Losing 10% of his points because of a failed attempt at crafting was a big risk. But what if the potential gains were too many to overlook? After all, getting cards was only half of the trial. Only relying on half the opportunities in this trial was foolish. He couldn’t just have a subpar result. He needed to excel at this challenge. He gritted his teeth and decided to go for it.

As he put both cards over the engravings, light again erupted from them in circuit-like patterns. The light built up to a climax that momentarily blinded him. This time, however, instead of sad news, he had a shiny new card sitting on the table.

[Fly Agaric] + [Yellow Honey Agaric]

Fly Agaric | Hp: 1→0

Yellow Honey Agaric | Hp: 2→1

Crafting Successful! You've crafted [Hallucinogen].

Recipe book unlocked! New recipe added to your recipe book.

Hallucinogen (Rare)

Hp: 2

Vp: 5

His first successful crafting attempt. Even though Fly Agaric's hp had been dropped to 0, it didn't crumble to dust as he feared. In addition to each ingredient card's points, he had just made 5 extra victory points! Given that [Yellow Honey Agaric] gave 2 victory points and [Fly Agaric] 3, he had essentially doubled how many points he got from these two cards.

After failing the first crafting attempt, crafting a recipe was a great relief. With at least one recipe, he could already draw several conclusions that would help him be successful again.

The first part of the challenge had rewarded logical thinking, and when Kai could get in touch with his more artistic and creative side at the end, he’d even unlocked a legendary card. If the same traits were rewarded in this stage of the challenge, he had to think of logical combinations and try to go for more creative ones when inspiration struck him.

It was time to experiment more. He looked at the [Bear Bread] mushroom card. There was also the [Dead Tree] card, which, in theory, should synergize with mushroom cards. The memory of all the different mushrooms growing off the remains of the dead tree was still clear in his mind. His biggest question was what happened to these cards from one stage to another or if this would even be the end of the trials. There was no point in worrying too much about what might happen. This was the time to learn as much as possible from what he was experiencing. He decided to try pairing the cards.

[Bear Bread] + [Dead Tree]

Bear Bread | Hp: 2→1

Dead Tree | Hp: 4→3

Crafting successful! You've crafted [Bear Bread].

New recipe added to your recipe book.

What? Had he just gotten another [Bear Bread] card? He looked at the three [Bear Bread] cards on the table. Mushrooms grew off dead wood, so it made sense that he had gotten another [Bear Bread] card from this recipe. No wonder [Dead Tree] was considered a rare card. It worked as a nursery for mushrooms!

Additionally, he had just made a massive discovery. Even though he could only capture two of each card at a time in the snap arena, he could have more in the craft arena!

Emboldened by the successive successful tries, Kai decided to make the most out of the two recipes he knew worked.

[Fly Agaric] + [Dead Tree]

Fly Agaric | Hp: 1→0

Dead Tree | Hp: 3→2

Crafting successful! You've crafted [Fly Agaric].

New recipe added to your recipe book.

[Fly Agaric] + [Dead Tree]

Fly Agaric | Hp: 1→0

Dead Tree | Hp: 2→1

Crafting successful! You've crafted [Fly Agaric].

[Fly Agaric] + [Dead Tree]

Fly Agaric | Hp: 1→0

Dead Tree | Hp: 1→0

Crafting successful! You've crafted [Fly Agaric].

Fly Agaric + Yellow Honey Agaric

Fly Agaric | Hp: 1→0

Yellow Honey Agaric | Hp: 1→0

Crafting Successful! You've crafted [Hallucinogen].

He had gone from 29 victory points to 50 with just two recipes! He was much more confident about doing well in his trial now. Boy, was he glad that he hadn’t sat back. This part of the trial was too profitable to pass. Crafting could help him make up for a poor snapping round if he was resourceful enough. That took some of the pressure off from the snapping arena,

He kept studying the different cards he had crafted. He especially took his time setting the [Hallucinogen] card side by side with all the other cards he’d collected from the pine woodland and thinking of any synergies.

Not finding any, he decided to try something new out. In his next experiment, he wanted to determine whether mixing two equal cards was possible. He decided to experiment with [Bear Bread]. It only gave two points, and he had three of them now.

[Bear Bread] + [Bear Bread]

Bear Bread| Hp: 1→0

Bear Bread | Hp: 1→0

Crafting successful! You've crafted [Mushroom Salad].

New recipe added to your recipe book.

Mushroom Salad (Rare)

Hp: 0

Vp: 7

Very good! A seven point rare card? It was a card similar to Lichen. It wasn’t meant to be used in crafting, but it was very generous in the amount of points it gave.

More importantly, his hunch had been correct! He didn’t need to get caught up in recipes that merged different types of cards. Sometimes, there could be good results by merging two equal cards on the crafting table.

With that in mind, he again shuffled the cards around the table and set equal ones side by side. His eyes landed on the moss card. He thought of his survival lessons and what moss could be used for. Neil had taught them several things they could do with it if they were in a pinch. He went with his gut and placed both of them on the table.

[Moss] + [Moss]

Moss | Hp: 1→0

Moss | Hp: 1→0

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

New recipe added to your recipe book.

Wound Dressing (Uncommon)

Hp:6

Vp:0

Cool! He had discovered yet another recipe. Too bad it didn’t offer any victory points. He didn’t mind it, though. After seeing what was there to gain from the craft arena, he was sure he would find many uses for cards with high hp. Finally, he went to check his recipe book. He opened his inventory and spotted the new item sitting there.

Ch. 5 - Drive to Survive

INDEX

Ch. 7 - Daisy Blues