Raizel observed the game for a while and came to an impressed conclusion.
It wasn't exactly shoddy work; they were playing a quite well-designed tabletop game.
The character cards were divided into elemental attributes with rock-paper-scissors counter effects, and the characters had different tactical focuses.
For example, Natsu, Erza, and Mira cards were heavy 'Attack' types, while Gajeel and Elfman were 'Defense' types.
Ur, Gray, and Juvia were 'Control' types, and Lucy and Wendy were 'Support' types.
Then there were the rare 'All-Rounders' like Raizel and Ultear.
The characters also had their own exclusive, lore-accurate skills printed on the bottom.
But as Raizel looked closer at the cards played on the table, something felt more and more off...
'Good grief, even the villains made it into the booster packs...'
'Members of the Oración Seis and Grimoire Heart were also printed as playable enemy cards.'
'Wait a minute... who gave you the permission to even use Mavis as a legendary card...?'
Although Mavis probably wouldn't mind the infringement, and might even happily join in to play the game herself... It was a good thing Zeref wasn't included as a card yet, otherwise the Black Wizard would be showing up in Magnolia demanding royalties.
Their gameplay involved a shared mana pool, and the card health levels were fixed for balance.
Meaning, while canonical combat power might differ wildly, it wasn't as vast in the card game.
Here on the cardboard, Natsu could genuinely fight and defeat Raizel, unlike in reality where Natsu would be instantly defeated with a single move.
Each player drafted three character cards and three item cards for battles, testing their strategy and psychology.
But Raizel felt the main focus of the game was probably on reading psychology and exploiting elemental counter effects...
For instance, in this current scenario, Lucy and Levy were dominating Cana on the board.
Cana was the type of player who wasn't very strategic but loved to aggressively play her favorite cards regardless of the meta.
"I lost again!" Cana groaned, slamming her defeated cards down on the wooden table.
"So you've been playing exactly like this all night, right? Keep fighting, keep losing, keep losing, keep fighting?" Raizel guessed that Cana had been losing all night but stubbornly refused to give up.
"Good guess! Next time, don't say it out loud!" Cana, whose tragic losing streak had been accurately exposed, blushed furiously.
"Was this game's idea yours?" Raizel asked.
"How could it be?" Cana made a face that said you overestimate me.
"Remember that distant kingdom that mainly uses card magic?"
"Of course I remember, I was the one who originally told you about it," Raizel nodded.
Cana continued, "They have a similar kind of popular tabletop gameplay over there. We just changed the characters and lore to match our guild."
"I see," Raizel nodded in understanding. He had initially thought it was Cana's own brilliant invention.
"I think you could add some advanced Enchantment Magic to this," Raizel suggested, leaning over the table.
"Put little holographic figures on them that pop up when played. Just playing flat cardboard isn't very visually fun."
"Also, having only one skill per card is a bit limiting for strategy. Set up four skills per character. The skill pool can be modified by the player before each match, choosing only from skills the real person can actually learn. You can't give a Natsu card something like Water Dragon's Roar, that would break the immersion."
"Don't make all the skills raw attack skills, either," Raizel continued, getting invested in the game design.
"Some can be strengthening buffs, some can be debuffs, and some can be field spells that change the terrain of the board. That would make it much more competitively interesting."
Adding little holographic figures was just a simple light projection spell, and the animated skills could be implemented too, without any real destructive power.
It wasn't a very difficult magic to enchant; someone specializing in magical tools should be able to mass-produce it.
If all else failed, they could just use physical figurines to play on a board.
The guild members had plenty of life-size merchandise figurines in the gift shop anyway.
"Great idea!" Cana's eyes lit up as she nodded affirmatively at Raizel's pitch.
"Wait a moment, say that again so I can write the rules down!" Cana tried to find paper and a pen, but unfortunately, she never carried such scholarly things with her.
"Lucy, Levy..." Cana was about to demand a pen but fell silent after looking across the table.
"We're writing it down! We're writing it down!" Lucy and Levy were currently working together, their heads down, scribbling furiously in a notebook to capture Raizel's new rule set.
"I wasn't very interested in their flat cards originally, but after hearing your holographic description, I've become quite interested in playing," Ultear smiled, walking over.
"Take it slowly. I can try to help you enchant and refine the prototypes," Ultear added immediately.
"You don't necessarily have to modify the game exactly according to my suggestions," Raizel supplemented.
"If you have your own balancing ideas, just make changes accordingly."
...
Over the next few cold winter days, Raizel often saw Lucy, Levy, and Ultear consulting various thick bestiaries and magic encyclopedias in the guild hall.
With the assistance of the Gale-Force Reading Glasses, books were rapidly flipped through, and the game design team showed a trend of gradual expansion.
Mira and Erza joined the design team one after another, participating in the card art modifications and stat balancing.
Freed, who had just returned from a nearby mission, was also recruited as an extra lore-checker because he had read extensively about the continent's history.
Raizel occasionally checked their prototype progress and offered small balancing suggestions.
But Raizel admitted he couldn't endure reading rulebooks for hours like they did—he'd rather go fishing.
...
Eastern Forest—
With nothing better to do on a snowy afternoon, Raizel and Gildarts called Laxus to join them fishing by the frozen lake.
"Have you prepared Cana's Christmas gift yet?" Raizel suddenly thought to ask while drinking hot tea from a thermos.
"All set." Gildarts grinned widely, looking very pleased with himself.
"Oh? What did you buy her?" Laxus asked curiously, reeling in his line.
"Everything we discussed that day," Gildarts replied proudly, without elaborating, as if to say you'll find out then.
"???" Raizel wore a bewildered expression.
"Wait... bags, perfume, clothes, magic tools, jewelry—you bought them all???" Laxus also looked at Gildarts as if he were insane.
"Are you broke now?!"
"Is there a problem?" Gildarts scratched his head, looking puzzled by their reaction.
"Yes! What will you give her in the future for her birthday?!"
This was Raizel's first logical question.
With Gildarts' current 'buy out the store' gifting approach, what surprises could future gifts possibly hold?
"I'll just give her the exact same things again next year," Gildarts answered casually.
"You're really something else!" Laxus gave a thumbs up with a sarcastically impressed look at the Ace.
"You flatter me," Gildarts grinned broadly, cupping his hands in humble acknowledgment.
"Second question," Raizel sighed. "Do you even know Cana's dress size? Just buying clothes blindly like that is a rookie mistake."
"Of course I know! I asked her," Gildarts said matter-of-factly.
Gildarts definitely didn't know Cana's current size.
Even if he knew it before he left, three years had passed and sizes had changed, especially since Cana had grown considerably taller into a young woman.
"You're really something!" Laxus directly copied his previous tone, expression, and sarcastic gesture.
"What's wrong with that?!" Gildarts looked confused by his judgment.
"Strictly speaking, it's not a big deal, but she'll definitely guess you're giving her clothes if you just blatantly asked her size," Raizel sighed, rubbing his temples.
"These past three years, I selfishly took on a century quest without returning even once. I want to compensate her for all those missed holidays all at once," Gildarts explained, his tone becoming much more serious and guilty.
"There's no need for that kind of overcompensation, old man. If nothing else, she understands your wanderlust, and she's grown up now," Laxus said, patting Gildarts' shoulder.
Over the years, Laxus and Cana had often teamed up together on jobs.
How to put it... Cana was someone who particularly wore her emotions on her sleeve.
With Gildarts absent these past few years, Cana did sometimes show signs of missing him, but overall, she remained a cheerful, strong member of the guild.