The Master of Cards Chapter 24: Base Card Attribute

Alex had finally formed his base card, the sudden appearance of which surprised him. He entered his inner world to look at his base card. He wasn't sure how he could identify the attributes of his base card because of its peculiarity.

The attribute of the base card was crucial to know, because the following cards could only be of the attributes in the base card.

After school, Alex returned to the dojo. He found Old Ren sitting and playing five in a row with concentration against his father.

Alex cleaned the dojo and sat down. He looked at the two warring old men and asked. "I need to find the attributes of my base card."

Old Ren looked at him. "Have you formed your base card? I'm surprised you were actually able to make it in time for the high school exam."

Alex nodded. Old Ren got up and went to a room and brought out an old machine. It looked like an old computer but it had the space for a card as well as an old monochromatic screen with a terminal.

Alex looked at Ren in shock. "Which century did you bring this out from?"

Old Ren ignored him. "This isn't easy to obtain. It has a much bigger database than the high school exam attribute detector. Take out your base card and attach it to this."

After saying this, Old Ren walked away back to the five in a row game. With a thought, Alex summoned a brilliant white card and attached it to the spot in this old device.

The device flashed for a long time before the terminal started typing out the analysis. Alex looked at the card and was surprised to see the attribute report.

"100% light attribute, type blank."

Alex wasn't sure what type was, so he yelled out to Old Ren. "Old Ren, what exactly is type?"

Old Ren replied. "Oh, I forgot to tell you. The type of your base card determines what kind of active cards you can generate in the future. It is an interpretation of your card's image."

Alex didn't ask further. He retrieved the card and suddenly with a single thought the card transformed from white to a night black color with a pain black image. Putting this form of his base card into the machine, he waited for the analysis.

"100% darkness attribute, type blank."

Alex sighed. A different form seemed to create a different attribute. He wasn't sure if this was common, but he knew he had to keep it to himself.

He once again transformed the card into its transparent form and ran it through the analyzer.

"Unknown Attribute, Unknown Type."

Alex sighed. His base card was really mysterious. He wondered if this was because of the two lightning tribulations that fell on him.

Finally he turned his base card into the striped form and analyzed it.

"Error."

When he tried to analyze the striped base card he actually received an error. He shook his head and his base card disappeared into his inner world. He turned off the machine and walked to the dojo area.

Old Ren looked at him. "How were the results?" He asked.

Alex smiled. "100% Light Attribute, Blank Type. What does it mean?"

Old Ren and Old Alok were surprised. "100% attribute? Was this the result of your focusing on the fundamentals?" Ren asked.

"I've never heard of someone having a 100% attribute before. Such a perfectly homogeneous attribute, your cards will display more power." Old Alok nodded.

"What exactly is blank type though?" Alex asked in puzzlement.

"Blank type is a very rare type. It means you can generate all kinds of cards of the light type. Whether it is battle type cards or non battle type ones." Old Ren nodded.

"I don't understand how they think you aren't talented. Such a peak grade base card..." Old Ren sighed.

"Do not inform them about this. I do not wish to have any ties with them." Alex said coldly.

Alex began reading up the material about the base card and what the next step towards generating cards was.

The base card was the foundation. In principle it did not have an effect of its own. On top of this base card, a card user could build up a 'deck'. A deck was essentially a a kind of research tree in games Alex had played back on his own earth.

There was a hierarchy in the possible upgrades of cards. A base card of the light attribute could create light attribute active cards.

Active cards were ranked by a number. Rank 1 cards could be generated as the first active card along a branch. A Rank 2 card would generate after the generation of the Rank 1 card leading to it along the hierarchy path and so one.

The highest rank card one could generate would depend on the potential of the base card and hence the seed. The higher the rank of the card one generated along a branch, the more powerful the card user would be.

Creating multiple branches to grow would increase the diversity of tools in the card user's pocket. For example, the fire type base card could generate the Rank 1 fire type card fireball, which would lead to an attack branch as one went higher along that path. But they could also generate another Rank 1 card Fire Affinity, which would lead towards the attribute control path.

What kinds of branches could be opened depended on the type of the base card. In Alex's case, his light attribute card had a blank type, which meant he could generate any of the Rank 1 cards in the Light attribute and build up on it.

Chapter end