The system held many secrets he had yet to unravel, but after studying it carefully, he found that there was at least one question he could answer now!
In the game, Arcane Dust could be used to craft cards, and disenchanting cards yielded Arcane Dust. But what were the exact rules?
The Book of Hearthstone had a dedicated crafting mode, where he could use Arcane Dust to craft the cards he needed. That also gave him a way to learn the exact rules in advance. After repeated tests, Aige discovered that the amount of Arcane Dust used in crafting or obtained from disenchanting had nothing to do with a card's mana cost, only its quality. Cards were divided into five qualities, each with a corresponding rare golden version:
Common basic gray cards: disenchanting yielded 1 Arcane Dust, while crafting required 20 dust; golden cards yielded 20 dust when disenchanted and required 100 dust to craft.
Common white cards: disenchanting yielded 5 Arcane Dust, while crafting required 40 dust; golden cards yielded 40 dust when disenchanted and required 400 dust to craft.
Rare blue cards: disenchanting yielded 20 Arcane Dust, while crafting required 100 dust; golden cards yielded 100 dust when disenchanted and required 800 dust to craft.
Epic purple cards: disenchanting yielded 100 Arcane Dust, while crafting required 400 dust; golden cards yielded 400 dust when disenchanted and required 1,600 dust to craft.
Legendary orange cards: disenchanting yielded 400 Arcane Dust, while crafting required 1,600 dust; golden cards yielded 1,600 dust when disenchanted and required 3,200 dust to craft.
Although Aige still didn't know what benefit rare golden cards offered, judging by how Hearthstone usually operated, they most likely just looked better and had flashier animations. Their strength was exactly the same as ordinary cards, and they existed purely for the rich to show off... Which was why they were so expensive. Pay-to-win players liked them, after all. One side was willing to sell, and the other was willing to pay.
He would have to wait until a golden card actually dropped for him to know the details.
What? Craft one to find out? That damn thing required a huge amount of Arcane Dust, so prioritizing it definitely wouldn't be worth it. But he at least knew of one benefit: he could only keep two copies of the same card in his deck, Northshire Priest for example, but he could also keep two golden Northshire Priests. That effectively expanded his deck's capacity!
Right now he had a mere eight dust, not even enough to craft the most basic gray card, so naturally he had no such schemes in mind... But that didn't stop him from spending the whole night studying every card and getting to know them in detail. After all, they were what he relied on to survive in this world. (They won't all be described in detail here. As an amateur writer, I actually just wanted to draw more friends into experiencing the charm of this casual card game! Apart from adding the ability to craft and disenchant common cards, everything here is the same, because in the game, basic cards can't be crafted or disenchanted-they're given away for free! But in this other world, basic cards are consumables too, so there had to be a reasonable source for them, right?)
On the Azeroth Continent, life was quite difficult for humans, especially commoners. Most struggled to put food on the table and were forced to tighten their belts to pay heavy taxes that supported nobles and soldiers. The former were the legally recognized ruling class, while the latter were the fundamental guarantee that humanity could maintain its foothold in this world. Without large numbers of powerful warriors, humanity would probably soon be wiped out by the other races...
The Horde, the Undead Scourge, demons, sea Nagas, and even forces within the Alliance itself-which of these assorted powers was easy to deal with?
Nights in the wilderness were always chilly and desolate. Young Master Aige had little more than a few rags left to preserve his modesty, barely enough even to cover his body. He could only build a large campfire to keep himself barely warm. The ground was cold, but that was nothing to Aige, who was used to hardship. To avoid catching a chill from the damp ground, he took out the corpses of four wild dogs and laid them down as a makeshift bed, with their vicious-looking heads facing down so they wouldn't spoil his mood...
Before falling asleep, his thoughts were still wandering... How much hatred would it take to do this? Wasn't this just like that saying: eat their flesh and sleep on their hides?
He was mentally exhausted, and this body hadn't eaten its fill or had a proper rest in a long time, so he slept straight through until noon. There seemed to have been a notification during that time, but his subconscious sensed no danger. He drowsily waved his hand, intending to shoo away whatever it was, then sank back into a deep sleep...
After getting up, he went out and found a stream, washed up with the water, and ate some cooked dog meat with the clear stream water. Only then did he remember to check the notification that seemed to have appeared... Hero Space was convenient. Although it could only store inanimate things, time seemed to stand still inside it: things came out exactly as they had gone in. Very convenient. Thumbs up!
The Warcraft Hearthstone System had indeed sent Aige a notification at six in the morning. It was a routine notification that arrived at six every morning, nothing particularly surprising. It merely reminded Aige that the system refreshed at six every morning. For anything measured in days, six o'clock marked the boundary, and anything less than a full day would be counted as a day. No bargaining allowed!
For example, if Aige summoned a one-mana minion at five in the morning, because one-mana creatures could only exist for one day, it would be considered to have existed for a day as soon as the system refreshed at six. Even though it had actually only existed for an hour, the system had a strict restriction: at six, anything less than a day was still rounded up to one day. All the energy supplied when the card was unsealed would be exhausted, and it would disappear!
This system rule was important. After complaining a few times, Aige carefully committed it to memory! Then he immediately put what he had learned to use and played the Northshire Priest card...
Even if he delayed any longer, it would only effectively shorten her time. He had planned to summon her today so he could create the conditions for a combo when healing the Wisp. (A combo means a series of hits; it can also be understood as a chain reaction, such as the interaction between two or more cards.) He would heal the Wisp, which had almost no health left, while also triggering the special ability of the Northshire bitch...
The Wisp was a good card, and its common white rating was well deserved. Just the fact that it would continue to exist as long as it wasn't killed meant the young master couldn't let it die easily... Especially after yesterday's battle with the wild dogs, when he had come to understand more clearly that one-star attack and one-star health weren't as useless as he had imagined, he was even less willing to let it die.
"Come out! Northshire Priest!"
He firmly directed his mental power at the only card currently in the Book of Hearthstone...
The Northshire Priest card instantly grew enormous, then descended from the sky and appeared a short distance in front of Aige. Under the influence of Arcane energy, the card's outer shell, which sealed the creature inside, instantly became the nutrients needed for the creature to operate in this world. Once that was done, it shattered into pieces, finally giving the powerful minion inside a real, physical body!
A mature beauty in a spotless white priest's robe stood gracefully before the young master. Her delicate brows slightly furrowed, she asked in a gentle, beautiful voice, "Is someone injured?"
Even though Aige had lived two lives, was used to seeing all kinds of beauties, and had watched countless videos in his later life, he was still somewhat stunned to have such an elegant beauty standing before him.
When he had played the card game before, its chibi art style hadn't made much of an impression on him. He had even joined in cursing many times because of how ridiculously overpowered Northshire Priest was: "If Priests don't die, Hearthstone will perish!" Or "If Northshire Priest doesn't die, Hearthstone will perish!" And so on... But now that this beautiful, gentle woman was actually standing in front of him, he only wanted to say: Northshire Priest really mustn't die!
This beautiful lady was lovely, but most importantly, she radiated a soothing aura. Delicate magical symbols were embroidered around the edges of her white priest's robe, giving her a mysterious, dignified appearance. She was tall and slender, with long, flowing hair and eyes as gentle as water, like the older sister next door. She had also playfully hung a pretty silver ornament from her slender waist to weigh down the hem of her skirt...
"Yes! Someone's injured!" The young master hurriedly pulled the Wisp, which was on the verge of death, out of one of his seven Hero Minion Spaces. Then... he looked at the priest with eager anticipation!
"Lord Hero..."
"Just call me Young Master Aige!"
"All right, Young Master Aige! It won't help to keep looking at me like that..." The priest held out a fair hand with slender fingers, and Holy Light seemed to circle around it...
"Uh! Where's your priest's staff? I've seen other priests with staffs. How come you don't have one?" Aige asked in surprise.
"I'm a support type, so I wasn't equipped with a priest's staff. Even if I were equipped with another kind of staff, it wouldn't be of any use. Besides, I'm only destined to exist here for one day, because there's only enough energy for me to act for one day..." she replied, a little dejected.
"Then can you heal? My Wisp is badly injured and needs treatment urgently!" the young master persisted.
"I'm afraid I can only provide support. I don't have the ability to cast Healing Spell. Perhaps my priest level is still too low! Whenever any minion receives healing, I can summon an additional human recruit for you. I summon one each time a minion is healed, up until there are no more spaces left in your Hero Space... I really can't cast Heal!"
It looks like the system gave her partial permissions, but there's a loophole here... After recovering from his initial shock at her beauty, Aige began to work things out.
He slowly asked, "If the extra recruits you summon fill all seven of my Hero Minion Spaces, can I still summon other minions?"
"No! You only have seven minion spaces in total. Any more would exceed the limit, so you can't directly summon other minions!"
"Damn! Then I don't dare use that ability of yours!"
The young master immediately began to question the point of the priest girl's existence...