The people in the command room began to work as commanded and quickly came up with an answer within a minute.
"My Lord! Ms. Koyuki's last known location was at young miss' kindergarten school! The last signal we received from her was at 6:12:34 PM before she suddenly vanished from our surveillance system," Penthesilea reported, clenching her fist in frustration as her nails dug into her palm.
Although she was busy commanding the operation to hunt down Lucian at the time, she realized she should have prepared a support or backup plan in case her lord's family was attacked. She trusted Michaela's strength, but as the director of this base, she should have been better prepared.
After a few moments of frustration, Penthesilea slowly calmed down, understanding that blaming herself wouldn't help. She could only take this incident as a lesson learned.
— The Sky Above the Kindergarten —
Daniel arrived at the kindergarten where Sylvana studied. He quickly scanned the area but didn't find anything. He then sank his mind into his mindscape and attempted to draw some more cards. Unfortunately, the card that could destroy enchantments didn't appear, so he couldn't check if there were any hidden spells around him.
Realizing that searching in the air was futile, Daniel landed his hover bike on the ground and began to search the area around the kindergarten on foot.
The night had fallen, and the clock was ticking toward midnight. Daniel's heart raced with anxiety as he stood outside the silent kindergarten, his daughter Sylvana's school. The darkness enshrouded the surroundings, adding an ominous air to the already unsettling atmosphere. The faint glow of streetlights cast eerie shadows on the empty playground.
With a sense of urgency, Daniel's hunter instincts heightened, alerting him that something was gravely wrong. He suspected a powerful magic was at play, hiding his wife, Koyuki, in this very vicinity. The magic seemed to have created a pocket dimension, a veil that shielded her from the outside world, making her invisible to all tracking attempts.
Determined to find his beloved wife, Daniel exhausted every tool and magical weapon in his arsenal. However, the enchantment's grip remained unyielding, as if mocking his efforts. The frustration and worry grew within him, especially when receiving reports from his men that both Koyuki and their daughter had disappeared simultaneously.
As the clock struck closer to midnight, the stillness of the night only intensified Daniel's unease. Each second felt like an eternity as he meticulously combed the area on foot, searching for any clue that might lead him to his missing family. The haunting darkness seemed to hold secrets, and Daniel was determined to unveil them.
With a heavy heart and a mind racing with possibilities, Daniel refused to give in to the helplessness.
The clock continued its relentless ticking, and now, only half an hour remained before midnight. Daniel's hope was waning, feeling the weight of despair settling upon him. But then, a familiar door materialized before him, almost out of thin air.
"What??" Daniel stood stunned, not expecting the shop to appear so soon. However, relief washed over him as he realized that luck was still on his side. Without hesitation, he opened the door and stepped inside, and as he did, time seemed to freeze in the outside world.
Within the shop, the surroundings underwent a dramatic transformation, expanding significantly, and a warm smile greeted him. It was the Keeper, the enigmatic figure who presided over the shop's mysteries.
"Welcome back, Mr. Daniel, or should I call you Mr. Emberweave," the Keeper addressed him with familiarity.
"It's been a while, Mr. Keeper," Daniel replied, making his way towards the Keeper.
"Before we begin, I must inform you that to safeguard the integrity of reality, some rules of the shop have changed. Some will be more troublesome, while others will prove quite convenient for you. For instance, we no longer require gold or magical ingredients. Instead, we now need faith power and changes in fate and destiny to actualize the cards without disrupting the fabric of realities," the Keeper explained. Daniel nodded in understanding, though his heart was impatient, knowing he had more urgent matters to attend to.
He sensed that any delay might jeopardize his chances of reuniting with Koyuki.
Observing Daniel's restlessness, the Keeper swiftly concluded his explanation, understanding that the urgent matter was of greater concern to him. With a reassuring smile, he spoke in his soothing voice.
"It appears that you have a pressing matter to attend to, unlike your usual leisurely visits to the shop. Luckily, time in this new shop passes a hundred times faster than outside. So, take your time to think about what you need," the Keeper said, attempting to calm Daniel's nerves, which had a slight effect, helping Daniel to regain some composure.
The meaning of the time in the shop is 100 times faster than outside means that on the outside, the time will be 100 times slower than within the shop.
"Do you have anything that can help me find her? No, you ask me if you could call me Emberweave, this means you always know about me. Can you recommend something that can help me?" Daniel asks again.
Hearing that, the keeper can only smile.
"I'm afraid I can't do that, Mr. Emberweave. You misunderstood about two things." The Keeper shows his two fingers before politely explaining to Daniel.
"First, I'm not the one that knows about you, because I don't have a weird hobby of stalking someone, and my curiosity does not extend that far. The one that knows about you is this shop. Second, I'm not the owner of this shop, this means I don't own all of the cards and their miraculous effects, and I can't create them either. As I said before many times in the past, all of this comes from you; no one can deprive you of it, even me.
My only duty here is, as my name suggests, just the Keeper, who keeps things around here and tries to assist you while still maintaining the fabric of reality to prevent it from breaking apart like last time." The Keeper paused his explanation as he waited for all of the information he spoke to let Daniel digest it.
"The only card effects I know are the ones that I voluntarily take out of the pack and the ones that I have seen before. So the cards that I haven't seen would be a complete mystery to me." The Keeper then stopped his explanation.
"I see..." Daniel was stunned by the explanation. Though he didn't have time to fully digest it, he kept all the information in his mind, promising to contemplate it later once he had dealt with the current situation.
Closing his eyes, Daniel began to ponder the cards that could aid him now. Among the many options, two stood out. The first was the 'Archmage' Profession card, which would grant him greater control over his spell cards. The other was the 'Avatar' type card, which offered a significant power boost.
The Avatar card functioned similarly to the Profession card, with multiple levels that enhanced the player. However, unlike the Profession card, the Avatar card, when played, started at its maximum level. The catch was that the player could only access its power if they had enough power counters available. Power counters were accumulated by using the card's power at lower levels, which added more counters. On the other hand, employing the card's more potent abilities at higher levels subtracted power counters.
A distinct advantage of the Avatar card was its immunity to destruction or exile. It could only be activated one at a time, and if a player wished to play a new Avatar card, they had to sacrifice the current one first.
Upon opening his eyes, Daniel decided which card sets he needed the most.
"Are 'The Rise of Camelot' and 'The War Of God and Heroes' card sets available?" Daniel asked.
The Keeper smiled and gestured toward the new addition to the shop—a vending machine. The machine displayed all the card sets that Daniel had prepared to sell in the past, except for the ones still in the prototype stage awaiting testing and approval. Fortunately, it also had the two sets that Daniel had asked for.
On the screen, a long string of numbers was labeled "Merit Points" or MP for short.
"The shop seems to react to your newfound strength and reputation, manifesting two additional machines for you to peruse. Of course, the old-school style like booster packs is still available. The only change is that these two types of transactions require Merit Points instead of the same old Gold Bars and magic ingredients. This type of transaction replaces the old one as I don't wish the fabric of reality to break like last time," The Keeper explained.
"You're the one who changed it? Didn't you say you're not the owner of this shop?" Daniel asked in doubt.
Hearing that, The Keeper let out a sigh.
"Really, you do have trust issues, Mr. Emberweave. Perhaps you should visit a therapist. I never lie when I said that I'm not the owner of this shop. But as the Keeper, I still have some authority to change and manage this shop to prevent it from destroying the fabric of reality," The Keeper explained again, sounding a little tired as he reiterated the explanation, having conveyed it to Daniel many times before.
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