Overwhelming Firepower

The lights in the Thornehart estate had long since dimmed, but one room remained bright.

Inside one of the smaller workrooms, Lucen sat alone at a table covered with paper, ink, wooden pieces, and several badly drawn card designs. Beside him was Mireya, who looked at each paper with excitement.

Despite knowing the start of the new school term was coming, and that he needed to get ready to start his job as an instructor, Lucen decided that he wanted to do this first.

He had prepared enough already for the coming school term, so for the next few days, he wanted to focus on at least creating a playable prototype.

The school term starts next week, and since he isn’t a full-time instructor and just teaches in a special class, he didn’t need to be there the first day.

’No, I need to be there on the first day. How can I skip the prologue of the new route? I can’t do it, no matter how interesting this new project is.’

Lucen nodded to himself with a serious expression. Mireya, who was sitting beside him, looked at him quietly. ”What are you nodding about?”

”Just some random things,” Lucen answered while shrugging his shoulders.

Mireya stared at him for a few seconds. ”I see.”

Her tone made it clear that she did not believe him, but she did not ask further. Instead, she looked back down at the papers scattered across the table.

There were several rough sketches on them. Some showed monsters. Some showed knights. Some showed spells.

Some were nothing more than circles, arrows, and words Lucen had written so quickly that even he had trouble reading them. Mireya picked up one of the papers.

”Hm, it seems that you’re quite good at drawing.” Lucen glanced at the paper she was holding.

It was a rough sketch of a dragon standing on two legs, its wings spread wide and its mouth open as if it were about to breathe fire.

In his past life, due to his love of anime and games, Lucen wanted to try to be a mangaka, which was why he practiced drawing; unfortunately, it was hard to become a mangaka even for those who live in the country, much less a foreigner like him.

Still, after coming to this world, he sketched alchemical ingredients, as well as sketches of weapons and other creations. He eventually got better than his skill in his past life, but for some reason, unlike other skills, this did not show up in his status screen, for now.

Maybe he was not skilled enough to make it a skill yet. Lucen decided not to think about it too much.

”So how does this game work exactly?” Mireya asked while looking at the other sketches Lucen made.

”I would have wanted to explain it to you with a game, but we don’t have enough sketches for that yet.”

Mireya looked down at the scattered papers, then back at Lucen. ”Then just explain the rules to me.”

Lucen looked at Mireya for a few seconds before nodding. ”Fine, but remember, this is only the rough version.”

”I understand,” Mireya replied.

Lucen took several blank sheets of paper and placed them on the table. Then he drew a line down the middle. ”This is the battlefield.”

Mireya leaned slightly closer. Lucen then drew five small rectangles on his side of the paper and five more on the opposite side.

”Each player will have their own side of the battlefield. These spaces are where Summon Cards are placed.”

”Only five?” Mireya asked.

”For now, yes. If there are too many, the game becomes messy. If there are too few, the choices become limited. We need to make it to a reasonable size that can help with tactics, but not make it too overwhelming.”

Mireya nodded. ”Reasonable.”

Lucen then drew a larger circle behind the five rectangles. ”This is the Life Crest.”

”Life Crest?” Mireya asked while tilting her head.

”Think of it as the player’s life. If your Life Crest is reduced to zero, you lose.”

Mireya stared at the circle for a few seconds. ”So the goal is to destroy the opponent’s Life Crest.”

”Exactly.”

”So we need to attack each other until one side is the only one left standing. We do this by using the Summon Cards?”

”That’s the simple way to put it,” Lucen answered.

He picked up another sheet of paper and drew a rough rectangle. Inside it, he sketched the shape of a wolf with horns growing from its head.

”This is a Summon Card. Each Summon Card has a name, an attack value, a guard value, and sometimes a special ability.”

Mireya stared at the sketch. ”Attack value is how strong it is when attacking.”

”Yes.”

”So similarly, Guard value is how well it withstands attacks.”

”Exactly.”

Mireya nodded slowly. ”So if my summoned creature has a higher attack value than your creature’s guard value, I can destroy it?”

”Yes, but not always. Some Summon Cards might have abilities that change the result. Some might grow stronger under certain conditions. Some might return to your hand instead of being destroyed. Some might damage the opponent’s Life Crest when destroyed.”

”That sounds very interesting. It’s truly similar to tamer battles I have read in books. Then what are the Art Cards and Ambush Cards for?”

Lucen smiled and drew two more cards.

One had a crude drawing of a burning arrow. The other had a sketch of a pit covered by leaves.

”Art Cards are cards that create effects when played. Some can strengthen your Summon Cards. Some can weaken the opponent’s. Some can destroy a card, protect your Life Crest, or change the battlefield. It is basically like the spells we use.”

Mireya looked at the card with the burning arrow, which was basically a flame spear. She then shifted her attention to the Ambush Cards.

”I guess from the name Ambush, these cards are meant to take the opponent by surprise.”

”That’s right,” Lucen said as he tapped the sketch of the covered pit. ”Ambush Cards are placed face down on your side of the battlefield. The opponent will know that something is there, but they won’t know what it is.”

Mireya stared at the card for a few seconds.

”So it is a hidden threat.”

”Exactly.”

”Can it be activated at any time?”

”Not all of them. Some Ambush Cards can only activate when the opponent attacks. Some activate when a Summon Card is destroyed. Some activate when your Life Crest is damaged. Some activate when the opponent plays an Art Card,” Lucen replied.

Mireya’s eyes faintly gleamed. ”So the opponent must always think about what the hidden card might be.”

”Yes,” Lucen said with a smile. ”Even if the Ambush Card is weak, the fact that it exists can make the opponent hesitate.”

”So then, can we just use whatever cards we have?”

”No, first you build a deck of cards, have them face down, and then you draw five cards, and one card once every turn.”

”That means what you get will be random?”

”That’s correct, so strategy matters, but luck matters as well. But I guess if you’re good enough, no matter what kind of cards you have, then you should be able to do something about it.”

The more Mireya heard about the game, the more excited she became. ”We need to make this as quickly as possible! I want to play it immediately, and then beat you at it.”

”I guess since there’s some luck involved, you do have a chance of beating me. Still, the prototype of the game will just be cards. But later, I want to create a game that uses illusions as if you are truly on a battlefield. Not just one on paper.”

Mireya stared at Lucen in silence for a few seconds. Then her lavender eyes gleamed brighter than before.

”So you want to use illusions to make it look like the creatures you summon are truly in front of you.”

”Yeah, that’s the goal.”

”Then we should finish the non-illusion version first,” Mireya said.

Lucen nodded his head. ”Yeah, we should. But with just the two of us, it might take some time.”

”Then we should hire artists so that we can create more cards faster,” Mireya suggested.

”True, but I would have wanted to ask people we can trust to help.”

Mireya thought about it for a few seconds before nodding. ”That is reasonable. If the cards are seen by others, then the people drawing them will know parts of the game before others.”

”Exactly, and once this spreads, there will be copies. Bad copies, terrible copies, copies made by people who think a stronger card automatically means a better card. The game will be ruined,” Lucen replied.

”That sounds unpleasant.” Mireya, who loved games, hated the idea that the game she was making with Lucen would become something disastrous like that.

”Right? It is one of the greatest sins of game design,” Lucen said gravely. ”For now, we can ask a few people from Thornefang, maybe some trusted craftsmen, and perhaps Harry’s theater group later. They already understand dramatic presentation, so they might be useful once we add illusions.”

”I understand... So then what do we do tonight?”

”Hm... I guess we can try making a few more cards to try and play a single game.”

Hearing Lucen’s words, Mireya, who was usually calm and collected, became fired up and spoke in a slightly higher tone than normal. ”I’ll do my best.”

The two of them worked until late at night, and were able to play one clumsy first game, but it was a fun experience, which just motivated the two of them more to make this game a success.