Yugioh Card Summoner

CH.575 Gold Series with Hiro

Before I was allowed to leave the inner castle, Hiro demanded to see how I make Yugioh cards. And because I’m me, and I love opening packs with people, I naturally agreed.

The only question was what set to open. Sure I could just go with Photon Shockwave, but I think Hiro would appreciate some older stuff. 

So instead, I pulled up some Gold Series 1, aka. Gold Series 2008, packs.

… thinking about it, I haven’t gotten any reprint sets in a while. But I’ll probably get a ton of them when I do the mass flower planting in Narra Kingdom and the Empire. Those usually give me the more unusual sets, such as reprint sets and decks. 

Also, I’m basically ready to go for the Narra Kingdom planting. It is the first big thing I’ll need to do when I get back home and have time to spare.

But back to the packs.

I queued up a few packs of and hit open.

“... it's really that simple? You just open packs and get cards?” Hiro asked.

“Yeah. At the beginning I had limits on how many packs I could open each day, but since cards like Pot of Greed and Jar of Greed give me extra Pack and Reprint tokens, I don’t have that problem anymore.”

I then hit the Flip All button to turn the cards to face us, so we could see what the pack held.

“Ooh! Rivalry! Rare Metal Dragon! Even ROTA! That is so cool!” Hiro exclaimed.

“Don’t forget about Skill Drain and Mist Body. Spells and Traps are overpowered, I’m telling you.” I said.

“Does skill drain just … shut off all skills?” Hiro asked.

“As far as I know, yes. Other than Pack Opener and Card Summoner. Those two are unaffected.”

“How is that fair? Everyone loses their skills, but you get to use your cards.”

“It isn’t and I love it.” I told him. “Fair is for those who want to enjoy fighting.”

“So what about Mist Body? It must be good since you mentioned it.” Hiro asked.

“Just makes you immune to all physical attacks.”

“... And you can use it at the same time as Skill Drain, right?” 

“Sure can.” I confirmed.

“... and if you do, Magic can’t be used because of Skill Drain?”

“Yep.”

“And swords, arrows, and the like can’t hurt you because of Mist Body?”

“Yes.”@@novelbin@@

“... so aren’t you undefeatable?”

“No. Things like magical bombs can still harm me. Basically anything you can make beforehand that doesn’t rely on physical damage really.”

“... still not fair at all.” Hiro said.

“Can’t argue with that. Shall we do a few more packs?” I asked.

“I guess. … can we get a Blue-Eyes form this set?” 

“I don’t… actually yes. There is a Blue-Eyes in this set.” I told him.

“Then let’s get it!”

“... it's mostly the same stuff. Except for the shiny cards.” Hiro noted.

“Yeah, it do be like that. Welcome to the life of a collector. You never get anything new, except like one in nine packs.” I told him.

“Can Jinzo negate all Traps?” Hiro asked.

“As far as I know, and have tested, yes.”

“Even like … if I dig a hole and cover it with leaves? Can Jinzo just break it?” 

“He can’t destroy ‘face down’ aka. hidden traps, just prevents them from activating. So he’d just walk straight over the hole. But if someone else later tried to follow, the trap could activate.” I told him. “But if there is an already active trap, say a blade attached to a pendulum that swings back and forth, Jinzo can destroy it.”

“Ah. I get it. … and the Crush Card Virus?”

“Do you want to start a pandemic? Because I don’t. So I don’t fool around with Virus cards.”

“Well I can’t get sick, so …”

“Tribe Infecting Virus would like to say you are wrong, but I’m not actually sure if it will affect you. It probably will, but at the same time, I don’t know all of the racial details about Crystal people.”

“Sorry, but not telling.” Hiro said.

I just went to the next pack and hit open.

“Is Mirror Force as good as I think?” Hiro asked. 

“Yes, but also no. It can reflect any magic attacks back, but it doesn’t automatically kill everyone who is your opponent.” I answered. “Swords of Revealing Light is arguably the more broken card, as it completely prevents people from moving if they are inside the swords, unless they are a member of my team or otherwise connected to me.”

“... And you can’t do anything about it?”

“It can be resisted with some skills, but those skills aren’t that common.”

“Have you recreated any of the armor of the Yugioh monsters?” Hiro asked.

“Naturally. Though I usually don’t. No offense to the monsters, but their armor is often more focused on intimidation than actual use. They have way too many random spikes that will just get in the way. So I just use them as a base for the stuff I make.”

I then opened the fifth and final pack.

“... We didn’t get a Blue-Eyes.”

“Yeah. Again, the life of a pack opener.”

“Do you think we could do more?” Hiro asked.

“Not today. I don’t want to turn you into an addicted fiend.”

“... okay. But you do promise that I’ll get to do that again? And summon monsters again?”

“As long as your father doesn’t start a war or something, I’m sure we can.”

“I’ll make sure he doesn’t!” Hiro declared.

The next day, because I asked Hiro if we could, we visited the food institute. I wanted to see the foods the Empire was working on. Or whatever they did in the food institute.

Both Saffee and Hiro came with us, us of the day being myself, Janina and Tinkhec in an avatar doll.

On the way, Hiro talked about the process of making the sodas and the multiple tries they had. At first their sodas were awful, but with enough tries, they eventually got to where they now are.

I then told Hiro about my own soda attempt and handed him a bit of the ‘best of the worst’ cola I had in Storage. As I said, mine wasn’t as close to the original as the stuff the Empire made, but it is different. And since mine is all artificially made using a Chaos God Dungeon, it might have flavors you can’t do naturally.

“... It’s definitely different from what we made, but I’m not sure which one is better. This has a stronger vanilla flavor.” Hiro said.

“Yeah. You probably use natural vanilla, while mine uses vanillin. Vanilla was way too difficult to get, so I had to use the artificial stuff.” I told him my theory. “That is also why yours has a more complex flavor. Natural vanilla has other flavor compounds than just vanillin, but I don’t know what they are.”

“You can synthesize vanillin?!” Hiro asked.

“... it’s complicated, okay. I can use it, but I’d rather not get into it.”

“... so you can’t but you … OH! Your dungeon!” He exclaimed. “It can make vanillin, but you don’t know how to synthesize it.”

“Yeah, you got me.” I admitted. He probably assumes I get the vanillin from TinaWood, not HomeBase, so I’ll let him assume that.

“... but I don’t think the dungeon drops it. Why is that? And your merchant doesn’t sell it either.”

“Just because of the market. Vanilla is one of the most expensive spices, and the Empire barely exports it. If I just reveal a source of it, even if it isn’t quite the same, it could cause some issues.”

“... we can’t export much because it is difficult to get. Vanilla flowers only grow in what is known as ‘the monster territory’ to the south of the Empire. They are dangerous lands filled with high ranked monsters. They are basically a massive field dungeon.” Hiro told me. “Only high level people can go there and come back alive. So we can’t just get as many flowers as we want. And sadly the flowers don’t grow outside of the monster territory for some reason.”

“Could be the amount of mana or miasma in the air.” Janina theorized. “Monster territories that breed many high ranked monsters usually have higher miasma density.”

“Vanilla plants, I think they were flowers, could also be some sort of monsters.” I added. “Maybe they grow as a part of some sort of underground plant monster that uses the flowers as bait.”

“Please don’t say that. That sounds terrifying.” Hiro said.

At the institute, Hiro introduced us to the team of three that made his sodas. Because yes, as a surprise to absolutely no one, Hiro is the one who gave them the idea, and worked on making them taste like they do.

I gave them samples of the stuff I had made, and then got some questions about the ingredients. I agreed as long as they would share their recipe, and with Hiro’s permission, we made the trade. 

Theirs was what you might expect an ancient recipe to look like. Water, cane sugar, aromas, spices. Yes, they listed the spices and aromas they used. 

Interestingly, theirs had no caffeine in it, while mine did. Mine also used phosphoric acid, while theirs used citric acid.

Compare that to my recipe, which is taken from the Dungeon Founder’s designer, so it didn’t read out as something just anyone can understand.

At least water was still water, but my sugar for example was both fructose and glucose. You can make the soda with just fructose, but the mixed tasted a bit better, so I went with that instead.

Then there were all the scientific ingredients from vanillin to caffeine and phosphoric acid.

“... Your highness, we can’t work with this. We don’t understand what most of it means.” One of the alchemists admitted.

Hiro quickly read the recipe himself and looked at me like he was disappointed. “Really?”

“What? That is what I use. I can turn yours to resemble that, but I can’t do it the other way.” I told him.

“At least tell us how to make vanillin! You have to know that, right?”

“Yes, but also no. I, in theory, know the raw material. I also, in theory, know the process. But that is just in theory. I’ve never done it that way.” I told him. “Give me a skilled alchemist and I’ll give you the actual production method in like a month. … okay, maybe two or three. I’m not sure how long it will actually take.”

“... Alright. I’ll get you one.” Hiro agreed.

“... okay?”

“Okay.”

Well, apparently I’m getting an alchemist. And all it will cost is some alchemical research. Not a bad deal, in my opinion.