O’Brien felt some brief pangs of hesitation but they gave way to his determination. In these past few weeks, he had more than enough time to harden his resolve. Although his repertoire of usable cards was quite limited, and what he was about to do would waste several cards, lessening it even further. He decided that this ‘waste’ could be a long-term investment.
Essence cards were cards that contained pure essence. They could not only be used for the recovery of one’s own card essence, but they could also work on card summons and equipment, they even could function as power sources, work as activation materials for certain cards, and were also base evolution materials required to upgrade cards. Their uses were numerous and widespread, making them unbelievably valuable. In the early years of the apocalypse, they were the most sought after cards, later on, their importance remained as a hard currency for important transactions.
Most importantly, they were also one of the few cards with no activation requirements, breathing method cards were another.
One reason O’Brien wasn't so keen on experimentally testing all the cards in his possession by trying them out stemmed from cards with similar peculiarities.
Failing wasn't his worry, succeeding was. The possibility of encountering a consumable card with an unknown use or a rare rebellious card that he could easily activate was enough to stave off the indescribable itch he got whenever he stared at them all for too long. If his brash action resulted in either option instead of a simple failure to activate the card then he would have nowhere left to cry.
O’Brien waited a while but as expected, just one wasn’t enough and the card disappeared into spots of grey light after injecting all its energy into the targeted card.
He smashed three more Grey Ash essence Cards into the deduction card with no response before switching to Blue Stone grade essence cards, after two attempts with those, he once again upgraded to Black Iron essence cards.
If anyone from the future were to witness his display of extravagant wealth and rough method of wasting resources they would wish nothing more than to swallow him alive for mishandling god’s resources.
But O'Brien only felt a slight pain in his heart upon losing his essence cards.
These were all the more common consumable type essence cards. With three to four uses each. O’Brien also had some permanent ones but those were his babies, their value couldn’t be easily matched and no sensible group in the future would dare sell them and instead would only keep them as treasured resources.
To the side, the girls watched with odd gazes as O’Brien sat in silence, patiently activating the essence cards which took a few minutes, and then he madly continued to bash card after card into the Green Copper grade deduction card. Time after time. Unwilling to spend too much by jumping straight ahead to a higher quality essence card.
This was a slower yet cost-saving approach despite the inelegant way he was going about it.
O’Brien did this wearing a subdued look of glee that deeply confused the onlooking women who were whispering among themselves.
Activating so many cards, despite them not being combat-related, sent waves of tingling excitement down his spine.
Looking over his collection like a squirrel hoarding nuts brought him enough joy but this was even better.
**
Elsewhere, in the Blue Flame Stronghold, secondary fortifications were underway after several engineers, students, and construction workers joined the base. As time passed and they could stably control the situation, they slowly took in skilled professionals from the outside. They either came from the group that stuck around outside the base from the beginning or were stragglers that came later or during escorts that the secondary teams of card masters undertook to clear out the large unwanted crowd.
Enough time had passed that they had full control of both internal and external situations, thanks to Minnie and her father, Celes could focus on other endeavors.
The other teams had helped gather materials to reinforce the base to a greater level, acted as security within the base, and regularly cleared away monsters in the surroundings among other duties. There were still some civil matters but fortunately, Celes's father was there to take control of things and she had time to spare with the others in this meeting room.
Just then, someone knocked on the door and brought them lunch, it was her mother.
"Celes, are you feeling alright? You haven't had much time to rest, you went to meetings with your father and the others when you came back, and then right afterwards you're in another one. You'll risk your health if you keep going like this." Rebecca Greymore caressed her daughter's forehead her voice laced with concern.
"I'm ok Mom, besides you should feel it as well, after awakening your aperture and becoming a card master, our physical fitness has increased severalfold. I can handle this much with no problem." Celes felt her cheeks turn red from the intimate contact but she didn't push her mother's hands away. Although they didn't have much time for deep exchanges, she had gotten to rekindle their relationship after the apocalypse descended.
"Yes but mental stress is different, also when you were out I imagine it wasn't a leisurely stroll either, just look at everyone else, they have dark circles and bags under their eyes. Covered in injuries. Promise me you'll take better care of yourself." Rebecca Greymore clasped her daughter's hand in her own, while Celes came back with only light injuries, she wasn't stupid and could tell the intensity of the battle from the lack of Sapphire's presence, who liked to fly circles above the base when nothing was happening and the injuries of her other team members were telltale signs as well.
"I will Mom, we're discussing something very important now, we'll talk later." Celes gently urged.
Her mother looked at her worriedly a few more times, reminded her to eat well, checked on her sister and then she left to give them space.
Celes felt the strange gazes of her team members and cleared her throat, "Ahem."
"Where were we?"
Minnie let out a chuckle.
Celes ignored her and continued with her lecture, she began by mentioning several of the minor advancement paths, ensuring to attach thick warning labels to them, paths which included O’Brien’s own Clay Golem Advancement Ceremony that he knew all too well among others.
“These methods take an extreme path, typically targeting certain alien races or special phenomena, mimicking them with one's body and aperture. But doing this removes one of us humans' greatest advantages, the plasticity to use different cards of various types, categories, uses, and grades.”
Celes used a piece of playdough and then filled it with little rocks until it formed a tiny man. “See? Now the play dough’s attributes are gone and it's reduced to just an inner component to this stiff toy rock man.”
She returned to pointing out the harms related to the minor paths, highlighting why they are only minor paths.
“The Clay Golem Advancement Method for instance, it's a ceremony where you take a Clay Golem’s core and fuse with it, unlike fusing with a natal card the effects of these are more drastic affecting even your daily habits, changing them gradually to that of a Clay Golem's and you also adopt its weaknesses. Most importantly, it caps out at the 3rd stage of the Card Master realm.”
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This was on top of all of its other weaknesses that were most certainly not few in number as O’Brien could attest: ranging from low flexibility of joints to severe suppression from water-attributed monsters and skills. Without several fortuitous encounters, he wouldn't have survived as long as he did.
“There's the Wolf Pack Advancement Ceremony that needs a minimum of seven linked users and relies on moonlight, the sun oddly enough is their weakness along with fire. Their limit is the 2nd stage of the Card Grandmaster realm.”
“There's the Night Walker Advancement Method that relies on darkness and shadows… capping out at the 4th stage of the Card Grandmaster realm. There's also...” Celes listed all the minor paths that she knew of and their maximum potential.
“Many in the future treat these minor paths as some kind of divine treasure not knowing the truth but in reality, they are a short-lived happiness with so many flaws to pick apart once you start to take notice.”
Celes shook her head, while this was partly a feature of their generation being the pioneers. Subtle influences from other humans were also a noteworthy cause. Particularly, base leaders from powerful settlements like herself.
She was surprised when she first encountered the situation, others were deliberately releasing such faulty methods into scattered mercenary populations and smaller bases to create cannon fodder to block powerful enemies in their vicinity. All the while, the ones manipulated had no idea and craved strength with such desperation that they jumped head-first into the fiery pits with zero qualms. Some larger bases did it in the background keeping their targets in the dark but others openly did it with a carrot-and-stick method further treating them as puppets to do their bidding.
It was a repulsive practice that was too widespread.
Still, Celes had to admit that it was a necessary evil for the breathing method was simply too slow and the breakdown method too resource-intensive on a large scale. Not everyone had the leisure she was giving her loved ones and friends right now, this included her previous self. The New World wasn’t such a forgiving place.
While she did have mixed feelings about the practice of using their fellow man as tools and an unknowing line of defense, one thing she didn't like was that most typically took it too far. Having a chance to get stronger would already result in most people taking the risks even with knowledge of the deficiencies yet in many cases they were deliberately pushed to kill each other for such a right by those behind the scenes. Like dogs in a fighting ring competing for a fat bone.
It was quite tasteless.
However, taking things at face value, all advancement paths had their pros and cons. What mattered to the user varied greatly, only those with great ambitions embarked on the two major advancement paths, others could very well be content with their lot.
“Well, although I want you all to choose to use the breathing method, I won't force you.”
Celes said whilst taking a deep breath, in fact, she couldn’t tell how many times she rejoiced when choosing the breathing method. This came from some advice she obtained during a chance encounter, it proved to be the best decision made in her early life. Part of the reason she desperately wanted them to agree stemmed from this.
‘The Blind Sword Maiden… I hope I get a chance to thank you when we meet in this time.’
Celes was grateful for dodging a bullet, Gods Favoured by their very nature were heavily biased toward their natal cards, any interference through other cards running rampant internally served only to harm them. She had witnessed many God’s Favored choose the path of quick success and not only completely lose their initial advantages but also remain stagnant forever, for some the steep decline was too drastic and they offed themselves unable to handle the deep quagmires of despair. With that being said, other than Old Wheeler, she was the only God's Favoured in their team and base, so the harmful effects for others using the breakdown method weren’t as severe as her own.
Their predicament was quite normal really, they were chosen by their cards due to compatibility. After being chosen that compatibility increased upon fusing with their natal cards, using the breakdown method was akin to throwing piles of poop into perfectly clear water.
Priya and Justin looked at each other. Jasmine who was keeping her head down also seemed to make her decision. Giselle, Xia, and Minnie conversed among themselves with Minnie loudly voicing her inner thoughts as if to let the others hear.
Celes smiled at her friend’s antics, obviously she was trying to persuade the rest seeing she was so set on the breathing method.
Reid and Gilly were also in the background with Old Wheeler trying to explain things to him better, succeeding where Minnie and Celes had failed.
Celes landed on her pink-headed sister who was uncharacteristically mute after several reprimands, this at least showed she was reflecting on her mistakes which was good.
'I can't stop her if she has her mind set on the breakdown method, I don't want there to be any more bad blood between us outside of her screwups as a team member.' Celes tried her best to separate her deep personal life from that of her leadership role. If Jasmine decided on the breakdown method then she would do her best to support her.
'Still, I've already spoiled her enough, she needs to deal with the consequences of her choices and actions. Although there are a few methods said to be able to completely remove the negative effects of the breakdown method, they work in very specific circumstances and even I don't have first-hand info on the details.'
Even Celes was not completely sure how to mitigate everything but as a wise general of hers once said, in this New World nothing is impossible. She also had a few leads regarding the matter. Still, one Jasmine was enough. She would have her promise to keep the other methods a secret from their parents and she would force them to choose the breathing method.
Besides, she was neither her sister’s mother nor her nanny, if she did choose the breakdown method knowing the risks then she would have to face the consequences of her stubbornness while she finds a cure later on. Celes didn't even mention a cure to the others as she didn't want to get their hopes up. It wasn't something guaranteed. Still, these were matters for the future, there was no need to lose sleep over it now.
As for manipulating her parents…
Celes knew it was a selfish move but she couldn’t handle anything happening to her parents after finally reuniting with them, she would have preferred to do the same for her feisty sister but the secret wouldn’t hold up for long in her case and she would simply switch methods after the fact so she simply told the truth from the start.
‘In a way, I'm letting them experience the apocalypse raw and untamed, most people didn't have a choice until much later on and simply took whatever method was available to them, now this is the only method that will be available to them.’
Celes used her warped logic to comfort herself. Without her interference, this would be the natural progression for most, lacking the time or leisure to mull over their decision.
Celes herself suffered the same at the beginning, although unlike ordinary people she was still quite well off. Certain natural treasures, aliens, and monsters could be devoured by Sapphire increasing her strength.
As her bound partner, Celes benefited from this as well and skyrocketed through realms on the backseat of Sapphire's chariot.
Celes had resolved herself to be more selfish this time around, her selflessness early on caused her no shortage of heartache and loss. This was why she all but whispered threats to her best friends that they had to take the breathing method, otherwise not only would they grow old and wrinkly while she stayed young but she could resent them for abandoning her. Harsh words, yes but they were necessary to avoid mishaps down the line. The whole reason she created this team was to have an elite group she could rely on in times of need. A team that she could rely on for countless years.
There were several future events on her calendar that she most certainly couldn't handle all by herself.
'Olympus's Arena, Fairies Black Trialgrounds, Call of Winter, Tower of the Gods, The Day of Second Sun, and several special secret realms... these are still mostly in the future but we need to start preparing soon.' Celes had her eye on several battlefields and trial spaces with great rewards, it was no exaggeration to say the final victors in these places were at the forefront of humanity going forward.
This time around Celes wanted to create a truly safe space for humans. One even the most powerful alien races didn't dare to trespass. To do that she needed certain powerful items as both deterrents and defenses. The competition to win and keep those powerful treasures were unbelievably bloody. She needed all the help she could get.
'I need to get the base in order in two weeks at the latest. The Black Jester's trial realm opens up in three weeks and we need to obtain that item from the list of rewards.' Celes placed herself on a strict schedule, while most ruins didn't exist or weren't yet opened, she wanted to get her base to the peak possible condition where they could operate without her presence. After ironing out the current wrinkles plaguing the base, she intended to get right onto the truly important matters.
“Well, have you made your choice?”
Celes felt enough time had passed and awaited her team's choices.