the card apprentice
Translator: Nyoi-Bo Studio Editor: Nyoi-Bo Studio
The card master who made cards needed to act at the same time as the maintenance person. In general, very few ordinary cards could be taken in for repair, since it was very easy to reduce that card’s performance while it. The costs were also very high. But if it was a rare and valuable card, it was quite possible that one might be able to afford one without there being any market for it; there would be no place to go if one wanted to buy it. If it were damaged, one would have to take it in for repair.
Chen Mu’s perception was very low. That card master that one year had never taught him how to train his perception. Although specialized training materials were well defined, and Chen Mu had started training early-on according to the prescribed methods, his results up to then had been quite meager.
But Chen Mu didn’t feel so bad as he thought about it, since of course, high grade materials were the mainstays circulating on the market. And the only way to elevate perception for a card master was to penetrate to the most core secrets. And who would selflessly reveal those secrets in that ruthlessly competitive contemporary society?
There were a lot of ways to improve perception, including many that were well-known. Each of the five flourishing districts of the Heavenly Federation had its own famously brilliant branch of card-mastery.
But in the five flourishing districts, card masters and card artisans were not split up, with both card masters and card artisans often within the same school. The Bitter Solitude Temple in the Fanasi District was one which used the mind as the media following a grueling regimen to train the heart-centered media to reach their goal of heightened perception.
There were five academies among the five flourishing districts: the Northern Reaches Districts’ Desert Camp, the Repository of Classics in the Upper Gan District, the Star Court in the Heterodox Brilliance District, the Moon Frost Island in the Heavenly Drum Village District, and the Bitter Solitude Temple in the Fanasi District. If one added the Comprehensive Federation Academy in the capital, there were then those six most famous large Academies across the whole of the Heavenly Federation.
The Heavenly Federation had five flourishing districts altogether, plus twenty-two ordinary regions. Chen Mu lived in Eastern Shang-Wei City, which was a city in one of the ordinary residential regions of the Eastern Reaches District. One could move freely among the ordinary residential districts, but it wasn’t so easy to establish a residence in the five flourishing districts, unless one had a specific professional-grade skill, or above. The conditions in the flourishing districts were considerably better than those in the ordinary residential districts, and it was the life-long dream of many people to live in one of the five flourishing districts.
Short tourist visits were not prohibited.
While it wasn’t clear where the Eastern Wei Academy would fall in the rankings, it had a rather good name in its own district. Unfortunately, Chen Mu had no chance to study in even that Academy. What he practiced was the most superficial method, and his native ability was severely limited. So, across two years of practice, his progress had always been quite minimal.
But Chen Mu surprisingly was not discouraged, and he persevered in his training. His method of training was a common way to address the demands of the medium, which could be applied to things from everyday life as one might wish. Chen Mu used what he was most familiar with, one of his one-star power-cards. The power-card which he had been using to train his perception had already gone through a remarkable transformation. It had become more detailed and crystal clear. The card seemed to have a very mysterious connection with him, though even he couldn’t say clearly what kind of connection it was.
Thanks to his lengthy and unstinting efforts, although it was still lowly, his perception was almost sufficient to make a one or two-star fantasy card.
He had memorized the composition of the fantasy card countless times, having steeped himself in it, and having committed it by heart early on. So, he then tried to make his first one-star fantasy card.
Dang! The nib on the pen was wrong, and the first card was wrecked.
The second card was also a failure.
The third card was a failure.
* * *
Sweat started to bead-up on Chen Mu’s brow, as he finally realized what the differences really were between making a fantasy card and making a power-card.
There were two parts as far as materials are concerned: the card-material and the card ink. The card material is the carrier that supported the ink, while the ink was used to inscribe the card’s composition. The makeup of the ink was very complicated, and its preparation was part of each card master’s basic course of study.
Making fantasy cards was not a simple matter of inscription with the pen, but rather it required that one use the power of perception to make the card ink and the card material agree with one another. In that way, one could greatly step up the level of difficulty to which one could produce.
Chen Mu already found it difficult to hold it together. His perception was poor at the outset, and it had only just gotten to where he could make one or two-star fantasy cards. That bout of continuous production had already exhausted his spirit.
He felt more tired than when making twenty-five one-star power-cards!
His head was so tired that in a state of unconsciousness, Chen Mu leaned over the table and fell asleep –a very deep sleep that time.
Out the window, the sky was full of stars. The weather was getting cold, and the constellations which filled the sky made a person feel somewhat desolate. The glow from the constellations was dreary, as it came in through the open window, and fell on the surface of the table where Chen Mu was bent over, asleep.
That mysterious card was lying peacefully on a corner of the table; by happenstance bathing in the faint starlight.
The room had a very calm aspect, with only the light rhythm of Chen Mu’s slight snoring. The finely intertwined silver threads as fine as silk on the surface of the card suddenly started to brighten a little, while the black card-stock increasingly appeared more profoundly pure and deep.
Gradually, some parts of the silver thread started to darken, dulling to the point where it would almost be difficult to detect them, and then the silky fine silver thread composition on the surface of the card began to undergo some new transformation.
Many of the silver threads were unaffected at the places where they intersected, and on the contrary continued to brighten.
Those transformations went on for ten minutes.
The face of the card had already undergone a complete transformation. All of the incomparably complex silver threads had disappeared, leaving behind innumerable silver bright spots, looking like stars filling up the night sky.
When Chen Mu woke up, it was already five hours later. He had been awakened by the evening chill coming in through the window. Rubbing his sleepy eyes, forcefully shaking his head, and still in a sleepy daze, Chen Mu stood up forthrightly, wanting to shake off the profound sleepiness still in his body.
He took in a deep breath, whose chill air woke him up more quickly. Out of the corner of his eye, something flitted from the tabletop. His body went suddenly rigid, as though it had abruptly changed into a clay figure. He stood there motionless.
After fully five minutes, he came back to life. Having come back to life, the first thing he did was to pinch his arm. Although he hardly ever dreamed, this had to be a dream, or so he thought. The pain coming from his arm told him otherwise; that the scene in front of him was no dream.
That mysterious card had already become unrecognizable. The innumerable silver threads on the surface of the card could no longer be seen, and what remained were differently-sized scattered silver spots, without any pattern. If he could tell that it was a high-grade card before, its appearance now told him that he was incapable of making any determination.
The card’s transformation utterly surpassed Chen Mu’s understanding. He stared somewhat blankly at the card in the palm of his hand.