"Wyatt, I've registered you in the database. You can use my lab and its card chamber anytime you want," Mary said as the door to the card chamber in her personal lab slid open.
"Thank you," I replied in gratitude. After collecting the ingredients needed to craft Napcoon cards from the merchant block, Mary brought me to her lab, lending me access to her card chamber.
Beyond it lay an illuminated chamber, its radiant walls etched with intricate, circular patterns. These were Gion circuits, the foundational formations and seals commonly used in card craft. At a glance, it was obvious this was a high-end setup. On the market, renting a card chamber of this caliber would cost me a small fortune. Yet here was Mary, offering me access to the card cave attached to the laboratory assigned to her for her research for free.
It would have been an act of pure generosity, if not for the fact that she was trying to recruit me as her intern.
Considering that I wasn't like the institute's regular interns, I was less a contributor and more a prop, meant to bolster its presence in this fiercely competitive world. I wasn't required to do anything beyond attending parties and making them look good. Especially now, with my astounding book sales, they had struck an incredible bargain. Maybe I should try renegotiating my contract with them. I decided to leave that thought for another day. For now, I was determined to practice and test what I had learned through painstaking effort this afternoon and evening.
Reaching the center of the chamber, Mary conjured a polished ball of the size of a walnut. It emitted a ray of light and spat out half a dozen Duskmouth cocoons, veils of Duskcoon gioncore stems, a bottle of Gion polish and a bunch of skill colors and finishers. Before Mary retrieved the ball, I immediately used my fate report on the nut.
[ — Fate Report —
Name: Stornut
Race: Grim Artifact
Gender: Neuter (⚲)
Age: Spiritless
Durability: Fine Build (90/90)
Gioncore: Low-grade (Micro)
Gion Deck: Superior (Minor)
Grim Cypher: Dendron's Descendant
A storage item crafted from a mutant walnut grimmon, fashioned into a ball hiding a small vacuum of 500 liters capacity.
Shrink Store: The Grimlock can shrink and store items within the nut. Summon: The Grimlock can summon items from the nut at will.
Note:
Any card equipped by the Grimlock will share the Grimlock's Grim Deck and Grim Cypher for the duration it remains equipped. Cards temporarily equipped by the Grimlock are classified as Minor cards, while cards permanently refined by the Grimlock are classified as Major cards.]
"All set, good luck with your crafting. If you have any problems, I will be right outside in the lab sorting the data I collected so far," Mary wished, before leaving me alone in the card chamber.
Familiarizing myself with the card chamber, I walked over to the table where the Duskmouth cocoons were laid out. These were the cocoons shed by Duskmouth when it matured from a Duskcoon. Each one was spacious enough to accommodate a seven-foot-tall human. However, they couldn't be used directly as sleeping bags, as they weren't breathable enough for human skin. Wrapping oneself in one would feel no different from being sealed inside clingy plastic. That wasn't a comfortable way to sleep.
That was why their silk had to be extracted and refined before it could be woven into Napcoons and crafted into cards. Based on what I had learned so far, even the lowest-grade Napcoons surpassed the sleeping bags from my Earth in both comfort and quality. Beyond simple rest, they came integrated with camouflage and recovery effects, making them indispensable for anyone planning to camp in hostile environments.
As a result, these cards sold like hotcakes. They were basic necessities for every Grim raider and for anyone preparing to enter the Grimmyth. There were no hotels or inns within Grimmyth. Survival meant camping out in grim corridors or even within the grimlores themselves, carefully choosing locations where the likelihood of being discovered and killed by a roaming grimmon was kept to an absolute minimum.
Unless someone possessed an ultimate undying physique or an ability similar to mine, they would absolutely need one of these.
These days, most crafters relied on silk from Duskmouth cocoons that had already been extracted and processed. Using such materials drastically reduced crafting time, but it came at the cost of detail and refinement. The resulting Napcoon cards were largely identical, mass-produced in both form and function, and sold at prices that reflected their lack of individuality.
However, there were still old-school card crafters who insisted on handling every step themselves. They personally extracted and refined the cocoon silk, then crafted Napcoon cards from the ground up, customizing each one to meet specific consumer demands. Naturally, their work was expensive as hell, comparable to designer or luxury brands back on my Earth.
Since I had chosen this profession, I didn't intend to settle for mediocrity. I wanted to be the best. And that meant rejecting the easy route and taking the hardest path from the very beginning.
…
"I just got word from the City Commander. Everything's been handled, and the gion ship has returned," Deputy Grimgate Commander Mark Payne said, relaying the update from their superior.
"That's great. But who were they?" Col D. Blade asked, trying to piece together who they'd been up against for future reference.
"That's confidential. One of the terms for their peaceful withdrawal was signing an NDA," Mark replied. He knew their enemies feared that even if they didn't report them to the F.O.E., public opinion could still be used against them. For big organizations from the prefecture, public opinion was crucial for them.
"Now that it's taken care of, and you've emptied my stash of good liquor, it's time for you gentlemen to leave," Director Hawthorne said, trying to usher his friends out of the institute but the two didn't budge.
"What's the rush?"
"I'd like to meet Crayon V. Wyatt before I go."
"Same here."
"Hey, don't copy me. I get first crack at the young man. You already had your chance at the garrison base. Don't think we don't know what you did."
"Gentlemen, gentlemen, listen to me. There's no need for you two to fight over something so simple. The institute is hosting a fundraising party in a few days. He'll be there too. Whoever runs into him first gets the first crack at him. What do you say?"
Mark and Col glared at each other. Neither was willing to go second, nor to share the opportunity. With no better way to settle it among themselves, they reluctantly agreed to Hawthorne's suggestion.
Once his friends left, Director Hawthorne called his secretary. "Inform whoever is in charge of the fundraising parties and stuff to no longer invite anyone from the city garrison or the Grimgate garrison. Especially their deputy commanders. And make sure neither of them can crash our parties or campus at any cost."
"Understood, sir."