CH.489 Talking about the Prelims

CH.489 Talking about the Prelims[Brian POV]

“... yeah. I really need to host this tournament next year. I’ll do a better job at it.” I concluded, after I heard how the preliminary round went.

Unika, Einar and Eline had come out of the dungeon yesterday evening, or maybe I should call it night. She did call me at 1:30 am to inform me as such.

It was now the next day, well technically the same day, and I had joined the Card Beasts for a late lunch, so they could tell me everything.

“Of course you would.” Einar said. “Master does everything better.”

“... that is a bit much. ... But I will admit, I can see so many ways of abusing the rules, especially if they were pre-known. I mean, I was able to abuse the rules and get you all that map. But I’d bet money that the party that ambushed you also knew the rules. That is how they knew to set up that roadblock and ambush strategy.”

“How would you have done it?” Eline asked.

“Good question. I actually do like the idea of getting items from the dungeon, as it shows adventuring skills beyond just fighting. And in the dungeon, a smaller team can move faster than a larger one. And based on your story, they did alter things like the drop points for the items, compared to the maps they gave you, so that is good. It removes some of the preparation people can do.

But there are still problems, like how well you were screened beforehand. While they did check your bags, they didn’t check for skills like Item Box, right?”

“I don’t think they did.” Unika said.

“Yeah, assumed as much. I mean, it is understandable. They can’t prepare for everything. But that does leave the chance that some adventurer comes in with a dungeon card that already has a ton of points.”

“I don’t think that would have been possible.” Einar said. “They had us touch a crystal thing that showed what we had done in the dungeon, both before and after. So if you tried to use a pre-filled card, I think they would have noticed that.”

“... they have something like that? Okay. Well, I forgive them for like ... half the bad things I said about them.”

“Half? It really wasn’t that bad.” Unika said.

“... yeah, probably not.” I admitted. “I’m just being cynical.”

“And you never answered. How would you have done it?” Eline asked again.

“Well, HomeBase isn’t really set up to be a dungeon for something like that. It is more of a stronghold, than an open dungeon. ... well then again, so is the Castle dungeon, you all just didn’t go that deep into it.”

“... what do you mean?” Unika asked. “We went pretty deep. The map didn’t show deeper parts. Sure we never faced the final boss, but...”

“That wasn’t the final boss. It is much more of a first final boss. There are another nine ‘final bosses’ behind it.”

“Nine?!”

“Yeah. The first, fifth, ninth and tenth are all SS-rank, others are S-rank.”

“... and you didn’t tell us this because?”

“Because you didn’t need to know. The Castle dungeon is a special dungeon, like HomeBase. It has a super powerful core, which absolutely should never be destroyed. So it needs something like that to protect it.”

“... but wouldn’t people know if they kill the first last boss?” Einar asked.

“There is a chance they’d find out, but question. Why would they challenge an SS-rank, when there is no real need for it. They won’t get anything out of it. There isn’t some hidden trade point, or secret treasure chest hiding behind the first last boss.”

“You would, because you can.”

“True. But I am not normal. And honestly, now that I know it is a special dungeon, I actually wouldn’t.”

“... we are so sidetracked. Again.” Eline pointed out.

“... sorry. Okay. So how would I host a tournament. Well, first of all, I’d do the prelims in Factory VR. For party style tournaments like this, I’d make an artificial dungeon probably based on TinaWood. The goal of the adventurers would be escorting a dungeon master to the dungeon core. One of my monsters would play the part of the dungeon master.

They would get points based on time, how many monsters they defeat, as well as the number, and types, of items they bring back from the dungeon.

And since it would take place in the Factory, I could just replicate the same dungeon over and over again, so every party is in a dungeon where there are no other adventurers, and every dungeon would be exactly the same, so no luck would be involved.”

“For something like an individual tournament, I’d probably have a gauntlet of my monsters fight the adventurer. Each monster is slightly stronger than the last, and since it would take place in the Factory, healing HP, mana and stamina between the fights is simple. And Factory, so no fear of death. Those who win the most battles get to the tournament part.”

“Something else like Best Tamer ... well, I’d have to think about it a bit more.”

“... now I want to take part in Master’s tournament.” Einar said.

“I’ll see if I can be the host next year.” I promised Einar.

Because the Card Beasts were quick with the preliminary, the max time they had was five days, by the way, we had a few days to burn.

I spent it going on dates with my girls. Each got a day all to themselves, and we did what we wanted.

With Alice, we visited the Sage’s tower, so she could read some of the magic books stored there. She was granted the rank of great witch some time ago, so while she doesn’t have full access to the library, she can read quite a few books.

... and I may or may not have been analyzing all those books, so that I could recreate them all in the Factory.

With Lua, we started the day off by curing a few dhampirs. Lua paid the adventurers guild to spread info about a curing happening. There weren’t many dhampirs living in the Hero’s country, as only stable dhampirs were allowed to live here, but we did get four customers, and heard of a fifth. But the fifth was taking part in the tournament, and was still in the dungeon, so we couldn’t cure them at the moment.

Other than that we just walked around the town and shopped around a bit.

With Cailie, I transformed myself into a melusine and we went for a swim. Sure I could have just been a mer-folk, but that is boring, so I used melusine instead.

We visited places like Marin’s herb shop, as well as the few friends Cailie made while she was an idol.

I really enjoyed seeing the underwater part of the city, because while I did swim through it with Ula, I didn’t really have the time to appreciate it then.

On that day we were also informed that the Card Beasts passed the prelims, and were set to go for the tournament, so we had to take their tournament equipment to the organizers to be approved.

On the last day before the tournament, and the exhibition match, I was out with Janina. We went on a massive shopping spree. She had picked up some funds from her hoard during the new year celebration and was now ready to use it all. She even had some dragon scales she could trade in for extra money.

Luckily they weren’t her own scales, or I think the people we sold them to would have ... maybe died? I don’t know. It did look like they stopped breathing when Janina brought them out.

As for me, well, I do what I do best. I open packs. It is fun and relaxing and I’m completing another set today.

And today's set is .

I’ll start off with a 200 pack speedrun. Then I’ll either do another 200, or go straight to singles depending on how many cards I’m missing.

So let’s get to it.

Spoiler

200 CRMS packs 1

Spoiler

Verdant Sanctuary (Common) x31

Super Solar Nutrient (Common) x38

Seed Cannon (Common) x28

Ivy Shackles (Common) x40

Assault Counter (Common) x33

Morphtronic Forcefield (Common) x36

Twin-Sword Marauder (Common) x35

Assault Mercenary (Common) x26

Desert Protector (Common) x28

Blackwing - Sirocco the Dawn (Common) x35

Morphtronic Slingen (Common) x31

Hydra Viper (Common) x28

Dupe Frog (Common) x32

Spell Reactor RE (Common) x27

Cross-Sword Beetle (Common) x33

Night Wing Sorceress (Common) x38

Morphtronic Boarden (Common) x44

Blackwing - Bora the Spear (Common) x30

Submarine Frog (Common) x25

Summon Reactor SK (Common) x23

Flip Flop Frog (Common) x26

Bee List Soldier (Common) x26

Trap Reactor Y FI (Common) x27

Morphtronic Rusty Engine (Common) x28

Vengeful Servant (Common) x33

Psychic Sword (Common) x39

Prevention Star (Common) x29

Morphtronic Map (Common) x35

Assault Teleport (Common) x42

Raptor Wing Strike (Common) x30

Trojan Gladiator Beast (Common) x32

Descending Lost Star (Common) x35

Supernatural Regeneration (Common) x24

Half or Nothing (Common) x33

Assault Mode Activate (Common) x33

Assault Slash (Common) x42

Nightmare Archfiends (Common) x31

Ebon Arrow (Common) x36

Morphtronic Mix-up (Common) x30

[collapse][collapse]Spoiler[collapse]SpoilerSpoiler

Morphtronic Slingen (Common) x29

Cross-Sword Beetle (Common) x26

Desert Protector (Common) x30

Bee List Soldier (Common) x39

Twin-Sword Marauder (Common) x35

Morphtronic Rusty Engine (Common) x35

Vengeful Servant (Common) x32

Psychic Sword (Common) x46

Prevention Star (Common) x29

Morphtronic Map (Common) x35

Assault Teleport (Common) x24

Raptor Wing Strike (Common) x30

Descending Lost Star (Common) x31

Assault Slash (Common) x28

Nightmare Archfiends (Common) x29

Assault Mode Activate (Common) x35

Supernatural Regeneration (Common) x32

Half or Nothing (Common) x30

Ebon Arrow (Common) x39

Trojan Gladiator Beast (Common) x40

Fake Explosion (Common) x24

Morphtronic Mix-up (Common) x28

Six Scrolls of the Samurai (Common) x34

Mysterious Triangle (Common) x45

Assault Revival (Common) x30

Indomitable Gladiator Beast (Common) x34

Telekinetic Power Well (Common) x24

Assault Overload (Common) x40

Trap Eater (Common) x35

Dark Tinker (Common) x31

Red Dragon Archfiend/Assault Mode (Ghost Rare) x4

Arcane Barrier (Rare) x10

Psychic Tuning (Rare) x7

Shining Silver Force (Rare) x12

Alien Overlord (Rare) x13

B.E.S. Big Core MK-2 (Rare) x9

Inmato (Rare) x11

Gladiator Beast Samnite (Rare) x12

Flying Fortress SKY FIRE (Rare) x6

Assault Beast (Rare) x12

Assault Armor (Rare) x9

Star Blast (Rare) x11

Makiu, the Magical Mist (Rare) x14

Synchro Change (Rare) x10

Planet Pollutant Virus (Rare) x7

Wall of Thorns (Rare) x13

Debris Dragon (Rare) x7

Arcane Apprentice (Rare) x6

Blackwing - Gale the Whirlwind (Rare) x10

Alien Ammonite (Rare) x7

Hyper Synchron (Rare) x14

Colossal Fighter/Assault Mode (Secret Rare) x2

Prime Material Falcon (Secret Rare) x1

Greed Quasar (Secret Rare) x1

Ido the Supreme Magical Force (Secret Rare) x1

Puppet King (Secret Rare) x2

Code A Ancient Ruins (Super Rare) x2

Scanner (Super Rare) x3

Totem Dragon (Super Rare) x2

Turret Warrior (Super Rare) x2

Armoroid (Super Rare) x3

Dimension Fortress Weapon (Super Rare) x1

Spirit Force (Super Rare) x1

Dark Strike Fighter (Super Rare) x1

Arcanite Magician (Super Rare) x1

Black Salvo (Super Rare) x1

Twilight Rose Knight (Super Rare) x2

Bone Crusher (Ultimate Rare) x1

Arcanite Magician/Assault Mode (Ultimate Rare) x1

Hyper Psychic Blaster/Assault Mode (Ultimate Rare) x1

Blackwing Armor Master (Ultimate Rare) x1

Hyper Psychic Blaster/Assault Mode (Ultra Rare) x1

Bone Crusher (Ultra Rare) x1

Lifeforce Harmonizer (Ultra Rare) x3

Violet Witch (Ultra Rare) x1

Blackwing Armor Master (Ultra Rare) x2

Hyper Psychic Blaster (Ultra Rare) x2

Cosmic Fortress Gol'gar (Ultra Rare) x1

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See! I got seven secret rares this time. Yes, if you ignore extra copies it is just five, but it is still seven.

As for the new stuff.

Colossal Fighter/Assault Mode is decent. It can really weaken opposing monsters.

Prime Material Falcon is way too specific to actually be good.

Greed Quasar is cool. Getting attack and defense based on its level x300 is cool. And it gains levels by the level of whatever it destroys by battle, so it can get very big very fast. Sadly it has no protection, but still a cool card.

And Armoroid can banish all Spell/Traps when it is tribute summoned. So it is good.

Spoiler[collapse]

Now to check what I’m missing, and to set up the Capsules for that.

Zeta Reticulant is interesting. If it is in the GY, each time your opponent’s monster is banished, you get a token. It can also special summon itself, from the hand only, by tributing one of said tokens. I wish it could special summon itself from the GY by tributing two tokens or something, but sadly that isn’t the case. Still not a bad card.

Tethys, Goddess of Light is just a Pack token loop waiting to happen. Get a token each time you summon a Fairy monster. Sign me up to that service.

Dark Voltanis is a counter Fairy, but it isn’t very good. Sure it has decent stats, but its effect is worthless for me. But I’ll still probably use him because of the stats.

And the last missing card, Royal Swamp Eel. It kind of sucks, because its effect is literally only a restriction.

But it is an eel, and we had some good eel when we dined with the dragons, so I might just cook up this Royal Eel for dinner.

Spoiler[collapse]

And that is it. One more set completed. Time to go enjoy my eel dinner and mentally prepare myself for the exhibition match.