By the time Gerald was up and moving, both his parents had long since left to go to work. Actually, it was more than likely his mother had slept at the store in truth. Regardless, Gerald found himself alone in the home, and without a list of things his parents needed him to do besides his daily workout. The new 18 summer old quickly got through the exercise and washed up in the bucket tub before getting ready to leave. He took the small bag silver he’d been saving and tossed it in his hand, measuring the weight. Would it be enough for anything?”
Gerlad shook his head. It was what it was.
“Wonder where the CC stores are,” he muttered aloud, mentally flipping through the image of the city in his mind. “Not Tailer street or Butcher street. I didn’t see any at market corner. Maybe, the entertainment district or Adventurer Alley?”
Gerald had never stuck around long in the entertainment district of Labyrinth City. He’d never been old enough to enter most of the buildings there, and his father had very strong opinions on gambling and ‘houses of ill repute’, as his mother once called them. He decided to try the area first and then get out if nothing were to be found. At least this early in the morning, the district wouldn’t be as crowded. That meant he might be able to find someone who could tell him where to go, if the man wasn’t wasted.
Destination in mind, the young man locked up the house and left, taking the paved cobble road unto the great city. All around, people hurried to their jobs under the new morning light, carts pulled people and products to new places, and the smell of fresh bread filled the morning air. Today in particular, it seemed, the sanitation crew was out in force, making sure the streets were clear of horse dung and anything else that might sour the city. Gerald politely nodded his thanks as he passed one crew, busily scrubbing away at appeared to be some other creature’s defecation; perhaps a magical flying mount.
Gerald dodged his way through the crowds and made his way into the entertainment district, where far more drunks and the like stumbled their way home after a rough night. Looking around, the young man spotted a familiar-looking beggar sitting at the edge of an alley and approached him.
“You sober?” he asked the dirtier man sitting on the ground.
The beggar roused himself and looked up at Gerald through bleary eyes. Then he smiled. “Well well well, if it ain’t the cap’s son. Bit early in the day for you to be visiting this place for your 18th birthday, ain’t it? Far more to do come nightfall.”
Gerald rolled his eyes. Leave it the beggars to know his birthday over his own family. “You know my interests Ratty. I need some directions, and not to anywhere to have your kind of fun.”
“Che, as boring as your cap’ daddy,” the beggar, Ratty, grumbled. “What’s the count again? You owe me one right?”
“You owe me Ratty,” Gerald said firmly, cracking his knuckles just in case the man wasn’t quite awake yet. “Remember? I helped you out of the bar brawl last week? And the week before, but you helped me for that one.”
“Ah, right, right,” Ratty mumbled as he scratched his chest and burped. “Yeah, alright, no charge today. What ‘cha looking for little cap’?”
“A store for CardCore,” Gerlad said.
“Heeh, come again?” Ratty blinked. “Oh, yeah, the new monster tamer sport thing. Just had the fifth tournament final yesterday, biggest turn out yet. 20 years on and the game is thriving finally. I remember the first one was hosted in, uh, a tavern, yeah. Last year the mayor hosted it in his yard for the elite to watch. Who’d of thought it be big enough to rent out the colosseum stadium.”
“So, the Beggar’s Guild didn’t turn a profit from early investing?” Gerald asked sarcastically with a raised eyebrow.
Ratty just giggled. “Hee hee, wouldn’t know anything about that, no sir no sir. What’s your business looking for a store anyhow? You interested in playing?”
“Maybe,” Gerlad shrugged, keeping his face blank. “Or maybe I’m tired of hearing my father complain about it and decided to do some investigating for anything, illegal. You wouldn’t happen to have gotten drunk off gambling winnings did you Ratty? Could have sworn you were banned from all the, legal, houses yeah?”
Ratty clicked his tongue, but subtly shifted the empty bottle of expensive booze out of sight. “Sheeh, cap’s son ain’t cha? Well, answer’s simple enough; doesn’t even warrant using the favor. Head over to Adventurer Alley and you’ll see the big one near the start. Just opened month or so ago by the inventors of the game, couple of retired adventurers, I think. No competition yet since no one’s figured out their secret yet, but whispers say there’s some hard at work folk figuring things out.”
“Thanks Ratty,” Gerald said, reaching his hand out to help the man up, only for the beggar to wave away the offered arm.
“No problems little cap’,” the beggar smiled, revealing a couple of missing teeth. “Always a pleasure working with the city’s bright futures, and all that. Now, leave me be. I need to get to work.” With that, the man dressed in ragged attire pulled out a bowl from his cloak alongside an instrument with 3 strings. As Gerald walked away, simple music echoed behind him from the dirty man, its melody oddly peaceful and comforting.
***
Gerald couldn’t stop a small smile from playing across his lips as he turned off the main road into Adventurer Alley. The unofficial name covered much of the central part of the city surrounding the enormous pit that dominated the exact middle of Labyrinth City, the physical manifestation of the labyrinth dungeon itself. The Adventurer’s Guild stood right before the entrance to the dungeon, the path leading down into the pit and things Gerald had never seen himself, only heard of. Practically all nearby businesses now catered to adventurers in the area, from armorers to stores that only sold long-term food rations. The dungeon had put the city on the map, and was now the central economic foothold of the entire city, tying everything together.
It was also a huge pain to guard, as his father most often complained, because on rare occasions when a floor was under explored, monsters would come out and cause havoc. The city was so used to such events that even injuries, let alone fatalities, outside the dungeon were a rare occurrence, btu that still meant guards had to be patrolling at all times around the large pit. Some rich folk apparently lived as close to the pit as possible just to enjoy the show of monsters making a racket, or Gerald had heard. He’d never actually seen anyone living near the pit though, so that just as easily had been a rumor.
Adventurer Alley didn’t have an official sign or other form of identifying when you entered, but that was because it would be harder to miss it. The start of the street was large and inviting, easily one of the widest roads in the city to allow for the transportation of large spoils from the dungeon. Hawkers shouted their wears all down the road, tempting anyone in armor they could see to pursue their wares before entering the dungeon. Expressions were both serious and bright on the faces of the various adventurers moving up and down the street of all races. Though Bosrel was nominally a human country, adventurers welcomed all races to their ranks, so it wasn’t uncommon to see the occasional elf, beastman, gnome, or even devil walking the alley. Rumor was that even dwarves had been seen before, though Gerald highly doubted that. Dwarves never left their volcanic mountain range and were rumored to be highly xenophobic, even more than ancestor elves and humans.
His musings were broken by the sound of a crowd, attracting Gerald’s eye as he walked further down the street. A mass of people appeared to be waiting outside a large store a little ways past the alley’s unofficial entrance, and as Gerlad approached the doors opened up and allowed a flood of people to enter. Curious, the young man walked over and looked up at the sign above the doorway.
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“Card Core Card Emporium,” Gerald read aloud. In his distraction, Gerald failed to react in time as a group of people rushed by him and accidently knocked him to the ground. He managed to avoid landing poorly, but the blow had managed to knock some of the wind out of him.
“Dear me, are you okay lad?” came the worried voice of someone above him. Shaking his head, Gerald looked up and met the eyes of an older, muscular woman with several scars on her cheek. She reached down and helped him up with a strong pull, further indicating her strength.
“Um, yeah, I’m alright,” Gerald said, brushing himself off. “Guess I shouldn’t have stood there that long. Thanks for the help.”
“No worries lad,” the woman smiled, clapping Gerald on the shoulder. “Just doing my job. Opening day after the tournament, so the owners were expecting some crowds. You a player then?”
“No,” Gerald shook his head. “I guess, I’m curious, about what this is. I saw the match while running errands yesterday.”
“Ah,” the woman adventurer guard, person, nodded in understanding. “I understand lad. I don’t quite understand it myself to be honest, but I get the appeal. Here, follow me inside. I’ll introduce you.”
Blinking, Gerald found himself being led into the store by the adventurer. She seemed to have no issues moving through the people being forced into a line by other adventurer guards, and a moment later Gerald found himself in a large two-story store covered in racks, display pedestals, packed shelves. The young man stared all around, not comprehending any of what he was seeing, beyond the excited groups of people of all ages moving around and speaking in excitement. The adventurer placed a strong hand on Gerald’s shoulder and directed him over to one of the walls where store employees were talking to customers.
“Tina, got one for you,” the guard called out, waving at a young woman. The young lady turned around, revealing a pretty face above the store uniform, bringing up a hint of embarrassment in Gerald that he quickly controlled.
“What happened Flora?” Tina asked curiously.
“Poor lad nearly was run over at the entrance,” Flora, the adventurer guard, explained. “Doesn’t seem to be familiar with anything, so I thought you’d be the best to explain since your parents own the store and whatnot. Anyway, I’m going back to work, cya lad.” And then faster than she looked, Flora was gone, leaving Gerald standing awkwardly with Tina.
“Um, hi,” Gerald mumbled, offering his hand.
Tina took it and shook it with a smile. “Hi! As you heard, I’m Tina, and my parents own the emporium here. So, you’re interested in CardCore?”
“I, a little bit I think. I liked watching the match yesterday, but I didn’t understand what was going on,” he admitted.
“No worries,” Tina nodded. “Here, I’ll give you the walkthrough.” She led Gerald over to one of the counters, moving behind it and pulling out a wristband with a dull crystal on it.
“Okay,” Tina said. “so, to get things out of the way, CardCore is essentially a card game, only done with magic through this, a card core.” She gestured down at the crystal. “It’s basically a lesser dungeon core; a cheap copy if you will.”
“So, it’s not dangerous?” Gerald confirmed, poking the wristband.
“Nope,” Tina confirmed with a nod. “Lesser cores can’t grow and can’t store enough mana to do much with. The first card cores were actually made from recycled material from the university from their dungeon research.”
“Okay, so what do they do?” Gerald asked.
Tina picked up the wristband crystal and secured it on her arm. The crystal glowed and, at a tap of her finger, projected several ethereal cards in the air. Tina reached up and dragged the cards down to the counter, showing them to the young man.
“Lesser cores can’t create anything, but they can store images and information,” Tina explained. “The inventors of CardCore figured out how to direct and control the crystals to not only record certain types of information, but also project it to interact with other lesser cores. A normal dungeon core can analyze monsters and recreate them in the dungeon magically, right? Well, lesser cores can also analyze, but can’t recreate phsycially. Take this card for example.” Tina indicated one of the ethereal cards, and flipped it to reveal a slime monster. “This is a tier 9 slime card. The lesser core recorded the monster and stored its information in card form. In a game, I can play this slime card and summon a slime to fight for me. Simple right?”
Gerald rubbed the stubble of his chin. “So, if you want to play a monster, you have to have encountered it before?”
“Originally,” Tina agreed. “Nowadays, card cores can do more than just record and play cards. They can also trade them to other cores or remove them to be sold. It’s still a recent modification to the system, but that’s why we can finally open a store.” She pointed to a row of shelves where card pictures were on display. “You can now buy cards to add to your deck instead of having to travel around and collect them yourself. That’s really allowed the game to spread beyond adventurers, since most people don’t want to travel and fight monsters.”
“Deck?” Gerald cocked his head curiously. “Like, a deck of cards?”
“Oh right,” Tina mused. “Let me explain. A player’s card core can hold a near limitless number of cards, but a deck is the small collection you use to battle other players. Depending on the rules, a deck can have at most 20 or 30 cards that you draw from while playing.”
“Now,” she continued, flipping over the other cards on the counter. “There are different card types that each behave differently from the other types. The slime card is a monster card, in other words your army. You can only summon tier 9 monster cards to begin with, but through either sacrificing or playing other cards you can summon higher tiers. There are also different monster types and species that each have their own unique quirk. For example, slime cards will evolve on their own when in an environment, so my tier 9 slime could become a tier 8 red slime in a fire environment. Before you ask, environments are another card type. Each deck can only have 2, and you always play one at the start of the game.”
“The forest and the graveyard from yesterday,” Gerald confirmed.
“Correct,” Tina nodded. “There are also trap and counter cards, things you play invisibly to cause your opponent trouble once they make a move. Building cards create structures in your environment that assist your strategy, such as a spawn card to create more monsters for free like a slime nest, or an environmental hazard to slow down your opponent, like lava rivers. Finally, there are spell cards with all kinds of effects both beneficial to you or detrimental to your opponent. You have to create a deck balanced around all five types to be an effective player.”
“Interesting,” Gerald said thoughtfully. “So, it’s a game of strategy and luck like any card game. The difference is that the quality of cards makes a difference here.”
“Oh, that’s another thing,” Tina suddenly remembered. “You know how some monsters are stronger or weaker than their average species? That’s reflected in the card rarity too when creating a card. This slime monster is a normal common, meaning an average strength. A rare and super rare slime will be stronger, while and ultra rare slime card will be way stronger. Alternatively, some monsters or other cards are just harder to find and have different base levels of rarity to begin with.”
“Doesn’t that seem hard to balance around?” Gerald pointed out. “I mean, with trading and selling being a thing now, doesn’t that mean someone could potentially commission a strong adventurer to find a lot of ultra rare cards and beat down everyone else?”
“That’s actually happened before,” Tina nodded. “Tournament rules now bring down all cards to their base rarity when playing. You can still get rare, super rare, and ultra rare cards in your deck, but only those with that being their base value will be retained. And just having a deck of ultra rares won’t win you the fight if they don’t synergize well.”
“I see,” Gerald said. “That sounds, pretty interesting honestly.” He smiled in interest at the wristband. “So those things work anywhere?”
“They can record anywhere, but card cores won’t work outside Labyrinth City,” Tina sighed in annoyance. “It’s the magic of the dungeon that permeates that area that let’s the big tournaments exist. Usually though, you’ll be playing on a table instead of a stadium. Unfortunately, it doesn’t seem the game will be able to go worldwide until we figure out how to solve that dilemma.”
“But, that’s the future,” Tina winked, causing Gerald to blush slightly. “So, since you’re interested, do you want to get started?”
“Um,” Gerald hesitated. He’d actually grown quite interested from Tina’s explanation, but the thought of what his father had said the previous day suddenly made him pause.
“I understand,” Tina said with a knowing tone. “It’s a lot to take in at once. And you need a parent’s permission these days to get started playing if you’re underage.”
“Oh, I just turned 18 today,” Gerald said reflexively. He mentally winced at Tina’s sudden change, a gleam in her eye.
“Well, that changes everything birthday boy, congrats on living to adulthood!” Tina bent behind the counter and began shifting things around. “Considering the new store promotions we’re running since its out opening day, I think I can give you a starter card core and deck to get you started.” She leaned back up and handed over a wristband and crystal to Gerald, who accepted it out of politeness. “That’s a slime starter deck, the easiest for new players like yourself to learn to play. As part of our opening day celebration, we’re hosting a new player tournament on the second floor if you’d like to join. Just one silver to enter, and the winner gets 10. Want to play?”
Gerald thought it over, looked down at the core, and wrapped it around his wrist. A soft white light illuminated from the small crystal.
“Sure, why not?” he said.