The Card Apprentice

Chen Mu would sometimes think of that card in his drawer, with its vastly complicated lines like the starry sky on a black background. But whenever he considered the cost of a three-star power-card rising to 15,000 Oudi, his mind cooled right off. Fiddling with the card had already become his daily habit. Just then, he casually put that card on the table.

Chen Mu was full of curiosity about the silver-threaded card with the black background, but he was still restraining himself, and hadn’t gone out to buy a three-star power-card. It was after carrying on like that that he came to a decision after some careful deliberation. Aside from the factor of the three-star power-card, the other factor was finally his own basic reason for making this decision.

His foundation fell short, extremely short; so short that he still wasn’t up to the level of ordinary low-grade card-masters. It wouldn’t help his development very much to waste all his time on that card. Without a strong foundation, the higher he went, the more dangerous it would get, and the more restricted he would be. He certainly didn’t understand grand principles, but he did still understand the simple truths of the life of the street punk.

For those past several days, he’d been immersed in the thrill of his rapid progress. He had never stopped pondering over the course of many years, even though a few crucial issues that he didn’t know how to solve were blocking his progress. But after he pulled out those corks, the gushers were a thrill – simply incomparable!

He considered himself already able to try making a one-star fantasy card.

Fantasy cards were the traditional specialty of the Heavenly Federation. The fantasy card was where the original creator of card theory, Rosenberg, had the most expertise. The first stage of the fantasy card was illusion. The higher stage was to model things. Beginner fantasy cards weren’t actually very useful. They could only put out some illusory images. Although those illusions were life-like, they were still only a kind of image, and had no way to cause harm to people, as experienced people could tell at a glance.

The power of high-grade fantasy cards was in fact quite scary. They could excite the energy of a power card, and by passing it through permutations and combinations, they could imitate an actual thing such as a representation of high-grade weaponry, or still more, a specialty weapon for card artisans. That sort of fantasy card was more often called a fantasy skill card. In general, when ordinary people talked about a fantasy card, they were basically referring to the low-level fantasy card.

There was a big difference between the making of a fantasy card and the making of a power-card. For a power-card, a card master could make one as long as he understood its composition, and had the requisite technique for inscribing on the card.. But a fantasy card was completely different. It required that the card-master have a certain perception. This so-called perception was the link-force between the card master and the power.

Power and the properties of matter were at the very core of what the card master must grasp.

Perception could be improved by going through some methodology, which was the required course of study for all card-masters. Within contemporary card master assessments, perception was one of the most important and basic of the capabilities, divided into exceedingly stringent grades.

Of course, perception was not something only needed by card-masters. There were a few professions, such as card artisan – or professional card users – who had the same requirements regarding perception.

But during the period when the card system was initially being developed – which was during the time of Rosenberg – the profession of the card artisan didn’t exist. Card masters at that time acted as the card-maker and were also the people most familiar with using the cards. In every sense, they had the ability to implement what they understood regarding how to use the cards, or how to operate them. At that time, when the card masters were the most numerous, they were both embellishing and making cards, while they had card-skills as well.

Right up until three hundred years before, at the time of Heiner Van Sant, the number of card-masters had been expanding for two hundred years. The sum of categories had already attained a quite significant number. This also caused many more cards to be able to circulate into the hands of people beyond the card-masters. As the card system became more and more complicated, the knowledge that the card-masters had to master as compared to the time of Rosenberg became excessive. Card-masters then began gradually to concentrate more and more on research and study.

It was beginning at that time that there arose a new profession – that of the card artisan. These were specialized personnel who make use of the cards. Since they were the ones who threw all of their energy into exploiting the cards’ formidable powers to the limit, they made far and away more awesome use of the card as compared to the card-makers. There are limits to a person’s energy. Since card-masters who studied card-making, and then also used the cards weren’t often able to achieve good success in either aspect, over the course of time there evolved the two professions, which differentiated more and more until they became as distinct as the Jing and the Wei Rivers.

But among those, there were also deviants, such as Heiner Van Sant. While he was a genius card-master, he was also one of the top card artisans of that period. He was to become the last recorded generalist card-master.

Up to the contemporary period, card-masters and card-artisans had differing emphases regarding the sharpening of perception. Most card-masters emphasized perception of power, whereas card-artisans emphasized how to control the power.

There were several ways to train perception, but the characteristic that they had in common was that they all required media. Media had different characteristic ways to directly influence perception, and the characteristic of the perception would also directly influence the cards that the card-master made. And then the characteristics of the card would also directly influence the card artisan who used the card.

So, in many places among different schools, card-masters and card artisans often co-existed. Those card artisans used cards from their own school, and since what they implemented was the same sort of perception, they could often bring out the most formidable power from the card.

Like the famously brilliant Bitter Solitude Temple. With every kind of core card that they made, if someone hadn’t come from the Bitter Solitude Temple they would be practically unable to use them. and even if they could, they would be incapable of the card’s most awesome power.

There were more card artisans than card-masters. Naturally, no more need be said about how respected the card-masters were. But the precondition was that you needed to get into at least the higher grades and above.

The card artisan was much more flexible than the card-master – private security guards, explorers, mercenaries . . . or, like those card artisans who were skilled in controlling the water-shuttle cards, and who could move about effortlessly underwater, they made the best candidates to explore and survey the sea bottom. Card artisans who were good at controlling the search cards were also essential personnel to maintain law and order everywhere. They were also essential on every expedition.

There were all sorts of card types, and the card artisans who used them came in every oddball shape and size as well.