The Card Apprentice

Chapter 112: Commissions

Translator: Nyoi-Bo Studio Editor: Nyoi-Bo Studio

Cheng Ying gritted her teeth, swiped her room card, and entered the flight training space.

She was very curious to look at all the facilities in the space, never having used such a high-grade training space. If the points were exchanged for Oudi, then the standard fee would exceed that for any training space she had ever used.

Of course, it was very advanced! She very excitedly went over to the training room’s control screen, on which was a list of all the rich kinds of training, which were far more than any space that she had ever used.

Yi, what’s this?

Cheng Ying found a string of numbers on the screen. At the top were the most recent, from only ten minutes earlier. Very clearly those were the data from the one who was just there, which hadn’t been cleared.

He actually didn’t clear it? Chen Ying was dumbfounded, finding that inconceivable. Any card artisan with the slightest bit of experience would never make such a basic mistake. Those numbers could reveal the strength of the one training, which for a card artisan was rather lethal, without any doubt. So, although all training rooms have an automatic save function, before they leave, card artisans would all erase whatever data was there.

During that time when it was difficult to determine if it was a safe or a dangerous period, such prudence was necessary.

Cheng Ying couldn’t restrain her curiosity and started flipping through the data.

She could tell at a glance that the data belonged to a card artisan who had rich experience.

The trainee had a middling flying ability, with nothing that stood out.

But she was startled when her eyes fell onto one line of data, on which was written ‘close-range dodging and evading in midair, difficulty: 80, final score: 85.’ Cheng Ying almost cried out, Heavens! With a difficulty score of 80 for close range dodging and evading in midair, that person actually got 85! Her gaze continued downward, where the line of data caused her to tremble.

83, 86, 92, 90, 91, 87. . .

His score had never dropped below 80, with probably one out of three over 90. Once she finished the line of numbers, Cheng Ying drew in a cold breath.

What a fierce guy!

Close-range dodging and evading in midair was an extremely obscure flight training. Very few were likely to undertake it. You could tell at a glance that there were basically very few obstacles in the air, making a lot of people think that doing such training wasn’t the least bit useful. When you added to that how difficult the training was, as well as its high demands for the card artisan’s control of the jet stream card, and high demands on their physical fitness, and then with extremely high requirements for responsiveness, the number of trainees decreased still further.

According to what Cheng Ying knew, only the card artisans who engaged in close-in combat as their specialty would practice such a skill.

Could that guy she just saw be such a card artisan? Cheng Ying was a little dubious.

It wasn’t that all card artisans would launch their attacks remotely. There had always been close-combat card artisans, which was related to their specialty fantasy card.

Some of the attack-type fantasy cards belonged in the close-range category, such as a type known as the autumn moon thin-knife card, which could very rapidly release a thin shaped energy blade about ten to twelve centimeters long, although its longest range was only five meters.

They wouldn’t seem to have any advantage when facing a long-range card artisan. Though still, the autumn moon thin knife card had a firing frequency much faster than the raining shuttles card, being able to fire fifteen energy knives in a second. In the hands of an ace, that could rise as high as twenty-five or more.

Imagine what a terrifying situation it would be once you were close to such a card artisan. Fifteen energy knives could practically cover most of the area within five meters, where there would be no place to hide. And twenty-five could cover the entire area. The moment they came near, you would find that you had already been sliced to pieces and turned into a pile of ground meat, spewing blood like a hurricane.

It was a good thing that the autumn moon thin knife card wasn’t a kind of card that was seen very often. There were pitifully few card masters who could make it. But the ones who could use such a card were extremely scary killers.

Another kind of comparatively representative close-in card artisan used a defensive card something like an energy cloak card to withstand the adversaries’ attacks, with the goal of getting closer and closer in. Those kinds of defensive cards weren’t simply able to achieve the goal of defense, with some of them even having a certain aggressive capability.

For example, the hundred changes cloaking card that Chen Mu had restored could transform the appearance of the energy cloak at will, making part of the energy cloak into the form of a blade or a spear, achieving the goal of inflicting casualties. That card had very high requirements for one’s ability to control perception.

In general, the flying skills of close-combat card artisans had to be quite a bit higher than those for ordinary card artisans. There were also higher requirements related to distance. They needed to be near the enemy they confronted, which required defense or dodging and evading the enemies’ attacks.

In any case, among those who could get a score of 80 or higher in the close-range dodging and evading training which had a difficulty level of 80, probably only one in three could hit 90. Even among close-combat card artisans, that kind of result would be considered utterly amazing.

Cheng Ying was more and more certain that the guy was a powerful and outstanding close-combat card artisan. But one very seldom saw such a careless card artisan. After thinking about it, she cleared out those data, and then chose her own training program.

At thee points per hour, she couldn’t waste time. Cheng Ying gritted her shell-like teeth, and quickly threw herself into her training.

* * *

Chen Mu was in high spirits when he returned to his apartment. It seemed that the sweat had made his whole body feel a lot more comfortable. After washing, he sat back at the desk, pondering what he had gained.

He decided temporarily to put the breath control to the side, since all that stuff involving perception wasn’t going to arrive by forcing it.

It had been a while since he had made any cards, and Chen Mu’s hands were starting to itch. Ning Peng had come looking for him during that time, hoping to get the exclusive acquisition rights to the raining shuttles card .II, which Chen Mu agreed to readily. He clearly understood how important he was to the Ning family, and was afraid that his actions last time had already displeased them, though they still made requests of him, and there had been no flare ups.

It was fortunate that Chen Mu could still make other cards in addition to the raining shuttles card .II. He opened that terminal that he had spent two hundred thousand points on, and carefully browsed through all the commissions.

The profession of being a card master was one where experience mattered. You couldn’t become an excellent card master just by making more cards. Though excellent card masters certainly had a rich experience making cards.

Chen Mu’s glance fell onto one commission in particular.

It was for the purchase of a three-star fantasy card, though the requirements for the card were unique. The requirement was for a close-in fighting type of fantasy card. Although Chen Mu had restored that sort of card before, he had never made one.

Repairing and making cards were two entirely different concepts. To repair a card, you only needed to restore the damaged areas according to the original composition, while to make a card, you would have to design the composition according to what it would be used for, and from your own experience.

After thinking it over, Chen Mu quickly took the commission.

Since it was to make a card, Chen Mu needed to contact the one who had issued the commission. He used his communications card to contact that card artisan called Will.

“Hello, may I ask if you are Mr. Will?” Chen Mu asked.

On the screen which had popped out in front of Chen Mu there appeared a strapping fellow, with deep set eyes, a high brow and roman nose, with the blueish look of just having shaved on his chin.

“This is he, and you are?” Will had a booming voice, full of breath.

Chen Mu said, “I am a card master, and I just took Mr. Will’s commission, and want to understand more particulars.”

“Commission?” Will was skeptically sizing up Chen Mu, and no matter from what angle, he just couldn’t believe that the green-looking youth he was seeing had the ability.

“What level are you?” Will’s voice had a definite tone of mistrust.

Chen Mu hadn’t thought that he would run into such a situation, though he quickly understood what was behind what Will had said. He hadn’t believed his capability. Although he’d been called into question, Chen Mu wasn’t angry. It was a common enough thing from his point of view. After all, given his age, others would inevitably be mistrustful.

Chen Mu took out his room card, and put it in front of the screen, very calmly saying, “I am at the ‘A’ level.”

Will’s face showed surprise. That “A” rank sign on the face of the room card had really poked him in the eye. Level represented degree of contribution, which corresponded to the number of contribution points you had earned since coming to the base.

Chen Mu had already earned hundreds of thousands of points, and if he completed the current raining shuttles card .II commission, he would earn a great many more points, raising his level still further.

Will looked ecstatic, and he quickly said with respect, “How rude of me! You really look too young. I await your guidance whenever you have the time.”

“A” was the highest level Will had run into. Level basically represented your capability, though naturally some fell into different categories, such as traders. Though you could still tell a trader’s commercial power from his level.

Will had only just joined, and he was only at the “F” level. If he hadn’t just completed a pretty lucrative commission, he wouldn’t even have enough points to issue that commission of his.

Although he didn’t know why a big guy in the “A” level would be interested in his few-hundred-point commission, he still suddenly felt giddy. Any card master on the base at the “A” level was certainly at the top of the pack of card masters. How could he not feel a little dizzy with such a high level card master actually helping him to make a card?

“Why don’t we meet up. How about the number twenty-eight basic training room?” Chen Mu had been scanning his terminal for which training rooms were free, and he had casually selected a room. That was one of the capabilities of that expensive terminal. Once he reserved the room, he only had to use his room card to open it, although the fee started as soon as he had reserved it.

“I’ll be there right away.” Will said respectfully, restraining his excitement.