After a week sweating at the construction zone, Blake was offered the opportunity to take on a higher paying position in the sewerage system of the city. He’d gladly accepted. The new job paid a decent amount of credits for less work than breaking rocks.
It was totally wild to think that despite the world outside having gone to hell, people were still being paid to maintain the sewerage system of New Meridia. Sewage seemed like one of the first conveniences that would disappear if the world ended, yet here they were.
The tunnels smelled just as bad as Blake had imagined they would. The waste of thousands all crammed into cramped tunnels, filtered into a treatment plant to be purified. There were two down here, one for sewage, and one for the rest of the city’s water.
According to some of the workers Blake talked to, the treatment plants themselves were actually cards someone had found. In exchange for playing it in the correct area, Clay Atlas had granted the owners a generous daily credit stipend, prestige apartments within Atlas Tower, and six months without work orders.
“That’s just what happens if you are lucky enough to get a facility card that the City Lord really wants,” the construction worker had said. “I tell you what, I wish I would be the one to find a hospital card. If I manage to find one of those, I’m pretty sure I might be elevated into one becoming one of Clay’s chosen ones.”
“Chosen ones?” Blake asked.
It was no secret that there are some Challengers who are given greater favor than others. But this was a new term to Blake.
“Think of it this way, you're in a position of power in a world which is falling apart outside your city walls. You have thousands of people living in your city, and you’re basically treating the majority of them as indentured servants. It’s only a matter of time before the unhappiness bubbles up into rebellion. If it hasn’t already.”
At the mention of that word, the man ducked his head as though he was afraid of being heard. “Forget I said that. But let’s just say that if the people became unhappy and started to fight back, you'd need some loyal men that would be able to fight for you, to protect your interests.”
“If Clay sweetens the deal, then people are more likely to keep fighting for him to protect their own interests,” Blake concluded.
“Exactly. He’s got a team of about a dozen powerful Challengers, and he head hunts the most powerful ones with the rarest cards. He gives them apartments in his tower, protects them with his soldiers, gives them the best work orders that have the greatest rewards, and steps on anyone else who dares lift their head.”
It wasn’t right. The same issues that plagued the world were raising their ugly heads in this one. Sitting in a tower there was always someone in control, with their favored few they used to exert power over the masses.
Blake bristled at the realization of this. If only he could do something about it.
They still didn’t know how Clay Atlas had come to be in this position of power. Was it a super rare card he’d found that allowed him to spawn a city? It could have just been a random card that allowed him to found a city here out in the middle of nowhere, but that was pure assumption on Blake’s part.
He’d heard about facility cards, but not city cards. This could very well be something even stranger.
“Have you heard whether there is any rhyme or reason to how people find facility cards and stuff like that?” Blake asked.
“No idea, sorry buddy. I've got one lousy power card that’s taking ages to level up, and anyone else that I know that's found a rare card or a facility card that the City Lord wants, they get taken.”
“How did the City Lord find out that they had a particular facility card?” Blake asked.
“They opened their big mouths, didn’t they? My advice is simple. Unless you need to use your cards or disclose their true nature to anybody, I’d recommend keeping it as close to the chest as you can. The moment others know what cards you have, what powers you can use, and what chips you’ve got to bargain with, that’s when things change. You have to keep your secrets in this city,” the construction worker said.
“There’s wisdom in that,” Blake agreed.
Now Blake was feeling like he had no choice but to play his Lair card as soon as he could. If anyone else found out about it and used its existence against him, he’d never have the chance to play it. The apartment that he lived in was owned and controlled by Clay Atlas, but playing his Lair card, Blake would be in control of that himself.
Today’s work order was time based, and it required Blake to walk through the sewers and clear any blockages that he could find.
He’d been given a pair of rubber pants held up by shoulder straps. They’d also given him a long stick with a metal hook on the end of it, which he used to poke and prod the disgusting blockages with whenever he found them.
Most of the time the blockages were massive wads of paper or cloth, plastic, hair or other things that decidedly did not belong in the toilet. Keeping the system clear was a constant war against idiots flushing random trash down the toilets.
The system didn't just deal with waste, though. That was just one aspect to it. There was also a water purification plant, as well as a water distribution system to allow people to access that in their homes, businesses, and apartments.
The good thing about time based work was that Blake could essentially do whatever he wanted down here, as long as he was moving about. He took some time to explore the cleaner areas that weren’t infested with human waste, and he figured this would probably make a really good area to hide a Lair.
Nobody in their right minds would come down here of their own accord, and he could cover his own tracks by saying he needed to come down here for work.
Besides, living in the sewers had worked for the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles. It might work just as well for him.
While Blake was down in the sewage tunnels, he found a place that would be both out of the way, and readily accessible from the surface. There were manholes hidden all throughout New Meridia, which connected to the sewer system beneath.
This particular area Blake found was behind a huge collection of pipes that appeared impassable. However, if Blake approached it just right, he could squeeze between two of the larger pipes, then crawl on his belly to get to the darkened void beyond it.
Nobody would ever think to search for a monster summoner’s secret lair here. There was even a little t-shaped alcove further down the tunnel which would hide the lair entrance from view if anyone did look through the pipes.
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Blake took a breath, then squeezed himself through the pipes and into the passage beyond. Once there, Blake held his Lair card in his hand.
A strange green interface appeared to overlay the world in front of him. The image of a door appeared on the wall immediately opposite him, and it snapped to whichever piece of wall he focused on.
He could activate the Lair card on any one of the walls around him. When he focused on the floor or ceiling, the interface showed a big red circle with a line through the center of the door, warning that a Lair Door cannot be placed there.
Another message appeared explaining how this card could be used. The voice of his AI assistant played in his head as the text rolled on by.
Activating this Lair card will create a brand new Lair at the site you activate the card. Given the nature of this facility, it is a good idea to ensure that the entrance is hidden. You can set the security of your layer to only yourself, or you may choose to whitelist a certain group of people. Unless you camouflage the entrance yourself it will be plain for all to see.
Think of your Lair like it's your own hide-out. Once inside, you will be able to access your Lair interface and see further information on what you can do, and how you can upgrade it further.
Blake sent a message off to his AI assistant. ‘What happens if I activate my Lair card here, and there’s something beyond that wall?’
‘If there’s anything that can interfere with the placing of a specific card, the interface will turn red instead of green. The door placements back here are all green, so you can place this wherever you like without impacting anything else.’
Useful tips. Well, there was no time like the present.
Blake then activated his card, and the system asked him if he was sure about this location. Blake selected the affirmative, and the system began the process of creating his lair.
The door that appeared looked quite similar to a lot of the other doors in the area but tucked away out of sight. The door immediately unlocked itself with an audible click as Blake approached.
Another message appeared.
Securing your Lair
You can lock or unlock your new Lair with a mental command, similar to your apartment. This can be done within a generous radius of the entrance, or from within your Lair itself.
Blake opened the door and stepped inside.
The lair was about the same size as his apartment on the surface. It was far less nice though, with no windows and sparse furnishings.
In the corner of the room was a fold-out bed with a thin mattress and no pillow. A small wooden chest sat at the end of the bed. There was also a small kitchenette area with a gas burner, and a small bar fridge tucked underneath one of the kitchenette cabinets.
The moment Blake stepped inside, a series of tutorial screens appeared in front of him. They went on to describe what he could do with his Lair, and the best way to upgrade it.
The most interesting detail was his Lair’s ability to give him missions in order to generate a currency called Lair Energy. Once he completed these daily tasks to build energy, he could invest those into upgrades and higher functions within his lair that would impact him in the world outside.
Blake read through all of the options until he found what he was looking for. The Lair had a function called Convert Energy-To-Anima.
If he had any Lair Energy built up, he could convert that into anima. Even though he would be forced to use all three anima allocations during his work order period, he would have extra anima to use for other purposes if he needed it.
Blake browsed through the three available daily missions for his Lair. Along with energy, these would also grant his Lair experience. As it leveled up, the amount of upgrades and improvements Blake could access would also improve.
The daily missions were simple, almost unbelievably so. Firstly, one said to complete a work order. Easy. The second option was to complete one practice duel against another challenger. Also easy, Blake could do that with Harry no problem.
Blake was about to read the third, but something strange happened to the layer card interface as Blake was scrolling through it.
The interface seemed to be updating in real time from a generic Lair any challenger might use into something called a Monster Summoner’s Lair. Suddenly, a number of the options available to a regular challenger disappeared and were replaced by something tailored to Blake’s innate talents.
The fact that this card completely changed when he activated it made Blake realize his cards weren’t the defective ones. He was.
Whatever strangeness was happening to his cards was centered on him, and he was the force changing the way that the cards worked. He didn't know whether he himself was somehow being treated differently within the system, or if his system was bugged, but he knew something was off.
Either way, the new options before him made a smile spread across his face.
He went through the list of upgrades and saw a number of things he was interested in. First off, there was something called the Monster Synthesis Lab, which appeared to have replaced a card synthesis upgrade module.
Normally, card synthesis allowed someone to power up their cards using a similar card. Monster synthesis was completely different.
It allowed him to combine two different monsters into one. One of his cards had already evolved, and the other was on the cusp of evolution. What would it look like if he combined his Stone Slasher Golem and his Shaleskin Wolf?
The downside of this was that both cards would be destroyed in the process, and the new card would take their place. So Blake’s overall deck size would decrease the more he used this.
Although when he thought about this, his AI Assistant chimed in.
‘Actually, you can simply un-merge them if you like. But that takes Lair Energy, just like combining them in the first place does!’
The other fantastic option was something called a Monster Battle Arena where Blake could summon two or more of his monsters and make them duke it out. It acted similarly to a training arena, but the key difference was that Blake could use it to level up two of his monsters at once by making them fight each other.
Given that he could have virtually unlimited anima via his Lair energy, this was big. It could allow him to grind his cards to a high level with close to zero risk. And moreover, would also allow him to experiment with different tactics and monster combinations without revealing these to the people of New Meridia.
There was another upgrade that was intriguing called Monster Hatchery, which let Blake put two cards into the hatchery, and the monsters contained within those cards would then have a chance at producing a new baby monster. It was similar to monster synthesis, but it took longer, and the monster that came from the union would start at Level 1. The power levels of his existing cards would not be taken into consideration at all.
Blake let out a chuckle of disbelief. He could basically experiment with combinations of new monsters as long as he wasn’t using those cards in his deck. For them to be a part of the monster hatchery breeding process, the cards themselves needed to be played in that facility.
Other upgrades included different monster environments which would make Blake’s monsters happier, increasing their combat effectiveness, and their likelihood of engaging in monster breeding. Basically, a happier monster meant for a better experience all around.
The only downside of this whole Lair upgrade process was that every single upgrade cost Lair Energy as well as a hefty injection of credits.
Many of them required far more credits than Blake had ever seen, and he had no idea how he was going to be able to amass the fortune needed for all of these upgrades.
One thing was for certain. Blake needed to acquire lots of different cards, and lots of different monster types if he was to unlock the potential of this system.
New card acquisition was one of the hardest things to achieve in this system. Blake needed to find a way that he could get more and quickly. Some method that wouldn’t completely burn him out if he was to keep working in sewage cleaning on the side.
He sent a query off to his AI assistant to ask them for what they thought was the best way for him to acquire more power cards.
The reply came back almost immediately.
‘Well, you could either work lots and lots and get one randomized card per week through the work order system, or you could go out into the wilds and fight lots of different monsters and hope that they drop cards for you.
‘I’m not sure what the card acquisition rate is from defeating monsters, but if you manage to invest some of your Lair Energy back into regenerating your anima, you might find that after your work orders are done for the day you might actually have one or two anima to use to fight.
Your evolved Stone Slasher Golem will be able to stand up to quite a few opponents without much problem, and you could summon him for a half an hour at a time. As long as you kept a retreat path in reserve, and didn’t bite off more than you could chew, I don’t see why you couldn’t spend an hour or two in the afternoon fighting monsters in the Wilds in the hopes of getting new cards.’
Blake nodded. “That’s good advice,” he said, and he planned on heeding it.