Arcane Dust

Biodata

Acquisition

• Monster drops: Hostile creatures can drop Arcane Dust, including ordinary low-level enemies. Aige’s first twelve wild dogs yield eight units, establishing that dust is not guaranteed from every kill 3 26.
• Kobold hunting: A Kobold laborer drops one unit directly into the Book of Hearthstone. During a later hunt outside Goldshire Mine, Aige observes at least one dust-dropping Kobold for every three killed; this is an observed result, not a stated universal drop rate 9 27.
• Quest rewards: Milly’s first two vineyard tasks each provide ten Arcane Dust as an additional system reward, for twenty in total 15.
• Disenchantment: Cards can be converted into dust. Excess duplicate cards are also automatically disenchanted when they enter the Book of Hearthstone 5 36.

Crafting and Disenchantment

The amount required to craft a card—or recovered by disenchanting it—depends on its quality and whether it is golden, not its mana cost 5.

All values are units of Arcane Dust 5.

Crafting Uses

• Choosing specific cards: Crafting lets Aige obtain a needed card rather than depend on random drops or quest rewards. He understands the conversion as immediate 5 10.
• Replacing consumable cards: Basic cards can be crafted and disenchanted in this world because they, too, are consumables 5.
• Adding lasting followers: Aige spends forty dust on a second Wisp because a Wisp can remain indefinitely if it survives, unlike followers whose summoning energy expires 12.
• Expanding duplicate capacity: Normal and golden versions have separate storage allowances: Aige can retain two ordinary Northshire Priest cards alongside two golden copies 5.
• Golden-card uncertainty: Aige suspects golden cards offer only cosmetic improvements, but has not obtained one to verify their full properties when he studies the crafting rules 5.

Conversion Losses and Duplicate Limits

• Disenchantment returns substantially less than crafting costs. A white common card costs forty dust but yields only five when disenchanted. This leads Aige to save dust until he needs a specific card 10.
• A third identical card is automatically disenchanted. Big Goldtooth’s Boar card breaks apart upon touching the Book of Hearthstone because Aige already holds two copies 36.
• The Boar conversion conflicts with the listed basic-card rate. Although Boar is described as a basic card, its automatic disenchantment yields five dust rather than the one specified for gray basic cards 5 36.
• High-quality duplicates risk larger losses. Aige calculates that an ordinary legendary card’s 1,600-dust crafting value falls to 400 upon disenchantment—a difference of 1,200 36.

Documented Acquisition and Use

Manifestation

• During the first Wisp summoning, the card’s outer shell is torn into powder, sending Arcane Dust drifting through the air. Only Aige can witness the complete unsealing sequence 3.
• During automatic disenchantment, the excess Boar card visibly breaks apart into dust before entering the Book of Hearthstone’s account 36.