Chapter 57: Clutch Draw

Frostaxe’s hands were shaking.

As a jeweler and a proper miner, Frostaxe’s hands had not shivered for decades now.

The last time he trembled was because Frostaxe had run into a twenty meter long Venomcrawler underground, and he only trembled because he was afflicted with the Venomcrawler’s poison.

Well, in the strictest of sense Frostaxe was indeed “poisoned”, but this poison was called “Internet addiction”.

Frostaxe’s hands trembled for two reasons; first, it was anger.

He had lost seven games in a row to Joshua! As a Great Elder of the Frostaxe Clan, he definitely would not have allowed himself to be defeated so many times.

Be it drinking or arm-wrestling, he would not allow himself to lose to someone so many times!

The second reason was excitement, as after he got familiar with the rules of Hearthstone, he was about to beat Joshua in the eighth game.

‘Jaina the Mage’ that Joshua controlled had only three hit points left, while he had a large number of high attack minions on the board.

Frostaxe’s ‘Garrosh the Warrior’ had twelve hitpoints left, and five armor points, but the minions under Joshua’s control had 21 points of attack.

But what was frustrating was that Frostaxe had used up all of his cards in his hand, he must now draw a card that could deal at least three damage during the next round’s draw.

If he draws one, he wins, if he doesn’t, then he will be crushed by Joshua’s horde of minions.

The unknown was always exciting, so exciting that Frostaxe’s hands were trembling.

This was also caused by the bitterness of losing so many rounds, and he was desperate in getting a win.

And the moment of truth had come as Frostaxe stared closely at the draw pile on his right, as a card was drawn from it.

This card will determine the outcome of this round!

Was it a Wolfrider with the Charge ability, or the higher level Leeroy Jenkins, or was it the father of Garrosh, the powerful legendary card of Grom Hellscream?

Frostaxe narrowed his eyes, as his current mood reminded him of the same excitement he had while finding a new mining node. With danger and anticipation intertwined, this wondrous feeling was extremely addictive!

The card was now in Frostaxe’s hand, and this moment, he felt that he held the future in his very hands!

“Cost 7, Gorehowl 7/1”

The moment he saw the card, Frostaxe jumped excitedly. While the armor he wore had prevented him from jumping, but the victory was his!

It was not any minions of ‘Garrosh the Warrior’ that won him the round, but it was Garrosh himself!

Frostaxe used the equipment card and equipped Garrosh with Gorehowl, as the latter let out a resounding ‘Lok’tar Ogar!’

Garrosh hoisted the legendary ax up and chopped brutally into Jaina as the surrounding screen shook due to the impact of the blow.

And Frostaxe could clearly feel the vibration!

When Jaina’s portrait exploded into pieces, Frostaxe waved his arms about happily as he cheered.

“Hahaha!! You damned mage, know the strength of me ax!!”

Joshua looked at the centuries-old dwarf cheering like an elated child, and he was sure that the latter had realized the joy of Hearthstone.

Aside from skill, the real fun of Hearthstone lay in luck! The game was after all a card game full of random factors...

A turnaround at a critical moment like this was the most exhilarating, and every game of Hearthstone would allow you to experience this thrill.

“How was it? Compared to arm-wrestling, which is more interesting?”

Joshua shut down the machine and asked the dwarf.

“Arm-wrestling is horseshite compared to this. Damn it, those younglings are still wasting their lives away under the tankard. I’ll call them over, and teach them what a real game is!”

Frostaxe was still in the euphoria of victory and the elder dwarf could not wait to call his kinsmen over.

“I’m sorry, Mr. Frostaxe, we are closing now.” Joshua rather reluctantly told informed the elder dwarf that they were closing.

“Closing? Weren’t your tavern open all day long?”

Frostaxe remembered that human taverns had mostly been operating throughout the day.

“We are, but these few days was just a trial run. We have not officially started our operations yet.”

Joshua had played so many rounds that it was already closing in on eleven o’clock at night. Even though the dwarfs were the kind that would drink throughout the night before collapsing all over the tavern as they snore away, Joshua and Ciri had work to do and did not have any time to waste.

“Plus, this game has yet to be completed.”

“Yet to be completed?”

Frostaxe did not care if the tavern had already officially opened or not, but when he heard that Hearthstone has yet to be completed, he immediately quelled the thought of calling the others.

This seemingly complex game in Frostaxe’s view was far from complete?

“In fact, not only it’s not yet completed, this is a prototype version.”

Joshua shut down the arcanotech machine and booted it in ‘coding mode’ as he displayed all of the codes and data stored within the storage before Frostaxe.

Before Frostaxe were nine portraits, and two of them were the already familiar Garrosh the Warrior and Jaina the Mage, and seven others than he had not seen before.

One looked like those sanctimonious templars, one looked like a vile elven assassin... and... Frostaxe was a little overwhelmed.

“You are saying... that there are nine classes in total in this game?”

Frostaxe was now a novice player of Hearthstone, and he, of course, understood what the portraits meant.

“Yes, and not only that, but you can also edit your own deck the official version.” Joshua once again let out a feature that made Frostaxe’s eyes shine.

In fact, from the previous eight games Frostaxe had been complaining about a problem, that was some of the cards in the deck were simply too weak, and he totally did not want to draw those cards!

And what Joshua mentioned that ‘you can also edit your own deck’, this was a feature that Frostaxe desperately wanted!

Being able to edit the deck meant that he can have a deck that was uniquely his, this satisfied the innate collection habits of the dwarfs, even if they were not as bad as the goblins.

When given a choice of “good cookie-cutter stuff”, or “good unique-to-you stuff”, anyone would choose the latter.

“Then get on it and finish it up!!”

Frostaxe was already a bit impatient, and he had not gone to other taverns in a very long time leading the younger dwarfs of his clan calling him old from time to time.

Now Frostaxe was about to tell them, using Hearthstone, why he was the grandpa.

“About that.... we have currently run into a problem, and I think we might need your help, Frostaxe.”

After feeling that he had drawn Frostaxe’s interest into Hearthstone deep enough, Joshua thought it was time to talk business.

More than half of the production of Originium Crystals were in the hands of the dwarfs, and this dwarven clans usually have set purchasers of their produces. Without any recommendations, it was very difficult for Joshua to get into the business.

Now Joshua already had a referer of his own, a very excellent one indeed, Hearthstone.

Excellent commodities were, after all, the most important thing for any investors.