Chapter 61

From the time Joshua finished discussing business with him, Frostaxe waited an entire week until he received Joshua’s invitation letter.

During this week, Frostaxe has frequented the tavern multiple times to check out on how things were progressing with ‘Hearthstone.’ But, not only was there not a completed version to be seen anywhere, Joshua even moved the prototype elsewhere.

After playing Hearthstone, Frostaxe felt that all other things became boring. After sitting in the tavern drinking wines of sorrow for multiple days on end, Frostaxe felt as if he was scammed by Joshua.

Those damned human merchants have always been extremely cunning. Frostaxe had experienced being scammed by human merchants many times already. After being scammed, Frostaxe would settle things with his scammers in a very simple manner — he would break the legs of those scammers with his iron hammer!

After receiving Joshua’s invitation letter, Frostaxe picked up his mining pickaxe and forging hammer the moment he finished working and proceeded straight toward the tavern.

If the completed version of Hearthstone was not up to par, he will definitely not hold back against Joshua.

Following the same path that he had walked down many times already, Frostaxe arrived at the Hearthstone Tavern and pushed open the tavern’s door.

Compared to the day before, the layout of the tavern had changed completely. Most conspicuous of all was an enormous glass cage placed behind the tavern. The floor of that glass cage was covered in a pile of crushed stones. The cage itself was illuminated by light-emitting runes.

An originium lizard was lying inside that cage and sleeping with its eyes shut. Frostaxe recognized that lizard. It was the same originium lizard he gifted Joshua.

Originium lizards were known for their laziness. Once asleep, they could continue sleeping for two months straight.

Unable to shoot flames and sleeping nonstop, dwarves found originium lizards to be completely useless. But, originium lizards were extremely welcomed by mages. Mages would generally use them for research material. The focus of their research would always be on how to extract the originium crystals on the back of those lizards without losing their effectiveness.

After all, no mage would want their magic staff to be a lizard that could grow up to two-three meters long.

Besides the extra originium lizard in the back, the furniture of the tavern has also been completely changed!

They were all transformed into the arcanotech device Frostaxe yearned for day and night!

Impatient, Frostaxe rushed to the nearest arcanotech device and sat down before it. At this moment, Joshua walked over from the counter and came to Frostaxe.

“Quickly, tell me how to operate this thing!”

Frostaxe examined the arcanotech device before him and discovered that it was completely different from the prototype. The greatest difference was the fact that there were two recesses on either side of this device.

“You will have to put your deck into it.”

Joshua gave a pitch-black colored originium crystal to Frostaxe. Frostaxe accepted it without complaint.

Upon holding the originium crystal, Frostaxe determined that it was a special mineral that could only be retrieved from the subterranean magma region. Its special characteristic was in its extreme toughness. It could be said to be a steel among originium crystals. That said, its hardness was far inferior to that of steel.

“Deck?”

Frostaxe took a glance at the pitch-black originium crystal. When he inserted into the original crystal the small amount of magic power he possessed, strange runes began to shine in the pitch-black originium crystal. Then, an image appeared on the originium crystal.

It resembled Hyrlan’s arcanotech device. But, the image that appeared was an ancient book.

Frostaxe looked to the rune-projected book. A large amount of cards were stored on the book’s first page.

Frostaxe reach out with his hand to flip over the page to the next. But, his fingers passed through the corner of the book.

He realized the book was only a projection. But, it was simply too life-like.

The moment Frostaxe’s finger passed through that corner of the book, the book turned to the next page. He recognized the cards on this page. They were the ‘Warrior Class Cards’ he was familiar with.

Besides a series of basic cards, the Epic weapon Gorehowl and Legendary minion Grom Hellscream were also among the cards on the page.

Frostaxe subconsciously tapped his finger on the golden Gorehowl. The instant he did that, the card instantly enlarged in size. Frostaxe was even able to see the details on the card.

“This originium crystal is your storage. It contains all your cards. It also stores your battle records.”

Joshua ended up giving up on the account system present on Earth’s Hearthstone. Instead, he utilized the original way trading cards were kept — through a storage system. One could call it either as a card collection booklet or a card storage crystal.

“You can edit your card collection at any time and anywhere. You are also able to exchange your cards with others.”

Joshua pointed to the function present on the collection booklet. It was a function not present in Earth’s ‘Hearthstone.’

Vicious and devoid of conscience, Joshua removed the dusting system. Regardless of how many duplicates one might receive in the card packs, they will never become dust. Instead, they will be stockpiled in one’s card collection booklet. [1]

When a player needs a certain card, they could purchase it from other players.

That was the basic rule for Yu-Gi-Oh, Magic the Gathering and other collectable card games — open card packs, collect cards and exchange cards.

That was also one the one thing that brings about most delight to the players besides battling one another. Back then on earth, Joshua once opened an extremely rare ‘holographic’ Magic the Gathering card. That single card was worth an equivalent of 10 card packs.

It could be said to be a market specific to trading card games. Joshua was planning to turn ‘Hearthstone’ into a trading card game too. [2]

Once Hearthstone grew popular enough, a golden card could be valued more than ten thousand or even a hundred thousand gold coins.

The arcade version of Hearthstone was merely Joshua’s first step in popularizing the game. Once he solved the internet server issue, he would transfer his Hearthstone program to the system in his head.

At that time, the popularity of Hearthstone would be at a level where...

‘What? Your wife is about to be executed? Who cares? Let’s play a round of Hearthstone first!’

‘What? Your house is on fire? Don’t worry about it, let’s play a round of Hearthstone first!’

“How do you purchase those card packs of yours?”

Frostaxe selected the warrior portrait. His hero was no longer the orc Garrosh. Instead, it had changed to the Dwarven King Magni Bronzebeard.

Seeing the imposing dwarven king donned in an exquisite heavy armor, Frostaxe felt extremely satisfied with his hero’s portrait.

But, while he was satisfied with that, Frostaxe discovered that even with Gorehowl and Grom Hellscream, he was still unable to arrange a deck that satisfied him.

“You can purchase card packs by putting gold coins into the arcanotech device.”

Joshua was originally planning to set up an arcanotech device especially for the sale of card packs. But, as he was in a rush to complete Hearthstone and didn’t have time to do so.

Assembling arcanotech devices wasn’t too difficult as long as one possessed blueprints. Following the blueprints, Hyrlan would only need to link together the suitable originium crystals with runes they go with.

But, Joshua was only able to complete twenty arcanotech devices in the week. In fact, he only managed to barely complete the basic card packs and classic card packs with Ciri this noon.

Because of that, Joshua still hasn’t added the daily missions and achievements. Different from browser games and mobile games, arcade games cannot be played for an entire day that easily.

With the fiery temper that the dwarfs possessed, the losers of any match would likely be kicked out and replaced with a new challenger.