HomeBase didn’t need anything super important from us, depending on how you look at things. Just manual maintenance. Well, calling it maintenance isn’t even correct. More like just tasks that I haven’t been able to fully automate yet, like the swapping of the cards in the avatar dolls. The dolls themselves, even when a monster is using it, can recharge their mana just fine. So as long as the monster using the avatar doll is willing to take a two hour break each day, there won’t be any mana problems.
Of course other than the avatar doll problem, with all Card Summoners on the ground, no one is up on HomeBase leveling up Wilma. She has been leveling up smoothly and was level 49 currently. Her skill level ups have been to her crafting related skills, Crafting, Blacksmithing and Enchanting. The reason I’m bringing attention to this is because she could potentially evolve now. Next time I, or perhaps even someone else, level her up, she will get to 51. And that might cause her to evolve. But depending on how things go, I might have to leave leveling Wilma up to Ria, or someone else. Ria just is the ‘go to’ when I assign this kind of work, as she is my maid. Also, giving her more reasons to use my cards might help her level up Card Summoner. Lua got a level to it after summoning Vampire monsters for nearly a month on a daily basis while she was teaching the villagers. Well, really thinking about it, she would have done it twice now. So maybe all of that experience just was finally enough for her to get the level.
Compare that to Alice who used her monsters to fight high power opponents. Well, she actually got her Card Summoner to level 3 all the way back after the behemoth incident, so it could also have something to do with her being fused with Mana, but I’m not sure. So maybe level 3 Card Summoner can be reached either by one big case of using my cards, or a long time of using them for daily tasks. I would say I’ll look into that, but realistically, I won’t. There just is no point, as I can’t cheat Card Summoner onto people. Maybe if I could, I would look for the level up conditions. If the skill even has any.
Well, level 2 did seem to have some. It does seem like you have to special summon a monster by a card effect for that at least, as Alex, Alice and Lua all got LV.2 Card Summoner after that. Though at the same time, Ria didn’t. But that might have been because she hadn’t had Card Summoner for that long at that time. And she did get her level 2 quite soon after special summoning monsters, so it did seem to help her.
Well, my ranting about Card Summoner aside, I have some important work to do. Mainly, automate the freaking avatar doll card exchanger. Just in case I can’t get to HomeBase for a day or two. There is no reason for me to be doing it manually, so let’s finally automate it.
When I began thinking outside of my initial idea, the solution to this problem was actually quite simple. That is something I probably should thank Mariina for, as the discussion I had with her about satellites and navigation really helped me open my eyes to just how set in my ways I can be. I think everything has to be done like it was done on Earth, as that is how I assume I should do it here, but I don’t.
So how do you automate things? You don’t. You just make someone else take care of it. And I’m not low on workers, as the avatar dolls are the workers.
So let me tell you how I actually did this. First problem was taking cards out of my Collection without me having to do that. For that, I actually went a bit of a roundabout way. Instead of figuring out a way to get the cards out of Collection, I figured out a way to get stuff out of Storage. Laura and Tahlia can easily move my cards from the Collection to Storage, and making a magic chest that linked with a specific folder of Storage wasn’t that challenging.
I just made a small box, actually it was an unlinked letter exchange box as I had one handy. Then I installed Pharaoh's Treasure to it, so I could turn that box into a magic bag. Well, a magic box in this case, but same difference. After that, I just installed Exchange to the box, linking it with my Storage.
Spoiler… I may have also installed Dark Mimic LV1 just to act as protection. Not that LV1 Dark Mimic can do too much, but it can bite someone’s hand if they try to get stuff from that box without my permission.
Spoiler [collapse]But yeah. Now with the box that was specifically linked with a very specific folder of Storage, I could have Laura or Tahlia transfer cards from the box to Storage and vice versa. Then from Storage those cards can be returned to the Collection.
As for the box and getting the cards from it to the avatar dolls, well, my avatar dolls can do that part. It shall be a task I give my Dragonmaids when they are available, and when they are doing something else, one of the Spellcasters can take care of it. Basically, they will take the cards out of the box, and put them into the card slots on the avatar dolls. Then they remove the cards from the other dolls, returning the cards into the box. Sure it will still involve some ‘manual labor’, but it won’t need me, so I see this as a perfect solution.
Now there won’t be any problems with the avatar dolls even if I cannot get to HomeBase for a few days.
Oh, and since I mentioned the Dragonmaids, I guess I can briefly talk about the new one I just recently got, Laundry Dragonmaid. As well as Dragonmaid Nudyarl as after I got Laundry, Kitchen was able to get me Nudyarl.
SpoilerLaundry or as we call her Nudyarl, or just Nudy, had taken over the laundry business on HomeBase. This was previously one of my jobs, as Storage made it kind of a joke. But after Nudy saw me doing it like that, she almost cried and told me that I don’t appreciate the fabrics enough. She then showed me how she did the laundry, and while the cleanliness level was about the same as from using Storage, the clothes she cleaned got a nice scent to them, as she actually uses some detergent. Storage doesn’t involve that, so it only makes things clean, and they won’t really smell of anything.
I guess to each their own, if you prefer just the ‘clean’ smell, or if you want that slight hint of a floral detergent. I can deal with either, but I can see the appeal in having that scent in your clothing. I actually quite like it when it comes to bedsheets, but in just my clothing, I might keep cleaning them with Storage.
“My Lord. You called for me.” A small catgirl said, as she entered my office.
I had called Eline to my room, as I had a few questions I wanted to ask her. And I might be offering Level Up services, as they do seem to be working well for Wilma.
“Yes. Please, take a seat. I just have a few questions regarding summoning magic.” I told her. That was the other reason I called her. Eline uses the local summoning magic and I want to know about it. I need to know if I can use it as an alternative to Pack Opener, or even combine it with Pack Opener. I even have the Summoner as an available race in One of Every Race, so looking into it feels like something I should do.
“I… I’m not sure what I can tell you, that you don’t already know.” Eline said. “You are a summoner way beyond my skills.”
“Perhaps. But I am a bit unique in that aspect, so I wanted to know about your summoning magic. Would you tell me about it?”
“... if you want me to.”
“Please do.”
Eline then told me about her first summoning, and the contracts she had. From that, I got a basic understanding of the local summoning magic.
First, you need to form a contract with a summonable beast. For that, you generally need a specific kind of a magic circle. We, well to be exact it was Alice, picked up a book that had said magic circle in it during our shopping trip yesterday. That magic circle should then be drawn on the ground, before the person who wants to make a contract has to fill it up with mana. If they have the aptitude for summoning magic, a random summonable beast will be summoned. Then from there, a contract will have to be made. The ways of making a contract seem to vary, as for Eline, all of her tigers asked for different things. For Tiggy, her baby tiger, Eline just had to feed it and name it. For Stripy the forest tiger, Eline was asked to brush it and name it. And finally for Sparky the lightning tiger, Eline was asked to ride the tiger, as the tiger sprinted at full speeds. After succeeding in that, the tiger asked for a name, and then the contract was formed.
By the way, in case you were wondering, the way Eline understood what the tigers were saying back then, the person who showed her summoning magic had Language Comprehension (beast), so he was able to translate for Eline. Also, Eline told me about the ways he had made contracts and a lot of them involved fighting. Even Eline was asked to fight by some of the random beasts that appeared, but she refused and sent them back instead. But for some reason, the tigers agreed to contracts easily. Her teacher told Eline that it is because she has a naturally high affinity towards tiger summons. That also made the mana cost of summoning tigers a lot lower for Eline, so even with her mediocre mana pool, she could summon something like the B-rank lightning tiger.
“Thank you Eline.” I honestly thanked the girl. “Now, do you think you’d like to make another contract? I’d like to see it happen.”
“But I don’t know how to draw the summoning circle.” Eline quickly said.
“Don’t worry. I have a book about it, so I can draw the circle.” I told her.
“Then… if you’d like me to, I will.”
On the grass yard of HomeBase, I took a stick and drew a magic circle on the ground. It took some time, as the circle was somewhat detailed, but not to the point where it couldn’t be done. In size, it had a diameter of about 7 meters. You could draw it smaller or larger, smaller ones took less mana to fill, but you generally get higher ranked monsters if you draw larger ones. Seven meters should guarantee at least a C-rank summon, but could go all the way to A-rank.
“Alright. Feel free to use it.” I said to Eline. “And if you want, I can make a more permanent one somewhere else.”
“... this might be too big for me. I’m not sure if I have enough mana for this.” Eline admitted.
“Oh. Well yeah. That could be an issue. I calculated that it should take about 800 mana though.” I said, as I rechecked the book for the math on how much mana a seven meter summoning circle should take.
“But if I use almost all of my mana on this, what about making the contract?” Eline asked.
“Oh yeah. That part needs mana too. Don’t worry. We have an app for that. Or a stone.” I quickly got a card out of Collection and activated it. “Pitch-Black Power Stone.”
Spoiler [collapse]“.. what is that?” After the black stone appeared in my hand, Eline asked about it.
“A stone that holds a lot of mana. You can use it to get your mana back after you fill up the circle.”
“Is there… such a rock?”
“Yeah. But you will see. If you would, please fill the circle with mana. I want to see if it works.” In all honesty, I just wanted someone who for sure can use the local summoning magic to try the circle before I try it.
“Then… I’ll do it now.” Eline said, as she kneeled on the grass and put both of her hands on the outer edge line of the magic circle.
It took her a while to fill up the magic circle, and as she did, she became noticeably drained. She likely did use most of her mana pool on it. Maybe I should have made the circle just 5 meters. But then there would have been basically no chance for an A-rank monster to appear.
After the circle was full of mana, it began to glow brightly and Eline quickly stepped away from it. As she did, she backed straight into me, so I took a gentle hold of her and placed the Pitch-Black Power Stone into her hand.
“Pour just a bit of mana into the stone, so you can get the mana out of it.” I told the girl, and she seemed to do as I asked, as her expression got noticeably better.
We watched as the circle glowed, until the light disappeared and in the middle of the circle stood a large lion. From head to butt, the lion was about 6 meters long, and it stood at just over 2 meters tall. That is its back height. If you consider the head, it was a bit taller.
(A mountain lion.) Laura identified the beast. (It is a B-rank earth attributed, cat-type beast.)
Wow. What a simple name. Mountain lion. Isn’t that like an actual animal on earth? Or was that just another name for a cougar? And do male cougars have a mane like lions do? Because this one clearly does.
Roar!
The tiger let out a roar, before it added some low-pitched grunts almost like it was speaking to us.
(Laura, would you be so kind.)
(It wants to see Eline use Earth magic. Then it will agree to a contract.) Laura translated for me.
Now that I knew as much, I told that to Eline.
“... but I can’t use any magic, other than summoning magic.” Eline said.
“Ah. Okay. Don’t worry. We can figure something out.” I said, as I pulled up my Collection.
Eline can use a card, as long as it isn’t in a sleeve, right? I must have a Spell-card that causes something that looks like earth magic. Just a shame the lion didn’t ask for fire or wind, as those would be a lot easier. Even lightning would be easier than earth.
I found two cards that should be good shows of earth magic, but I’m not so sure if they are good for this situation. We might just end up killing this lion. Well, if we do, I’ll get it back with Monster Reborn. At least I think I’ll be able to summon it back if it dies.
And this card is still better than having Eline activate Mountain or Wasteland on HomeBase.
Spoiler“Eline. I want you to hold this card.” I told the girl, as I traded the Power Stone in her hand for a card. “Its name is Fissure. I want you to say it.” I told her as soon as the card was no longer in my hand. I didn’t want to be the one to activate it.
“... fissure?” Eline said, and the card activated.
Spoiler [collapse]As soon as she had said so, the ground below the mountain lion’s feet split open, and the lion fell into the open fissure. And then, just as quickly as it had opened, the fissure closed and crushed the lion trapped within.
“B-Brian… we killed it. Before the contract.” Eline said in a slight panic. As she was panicking slightly, she probably didn’t even notice that the card in her hand was disappearing.
“Don’t worry. I got this covered.” I said, as I held the next card. “Monster Reborn, bring back that mountain lion.”
Spoiler [collapse]After I activated the card, the mountain lion that was just crushed by slabs of earth reappeared in the magic circle. It seemed frankly terrified by what just happened.
{Raw… raw…} It muttered that it surrendered and accepted the contract.
“Okay Eline. Go and make a contract.” I told my little catgirl.
HomeBase didn’t need anything super important from us, depending on how you look at things. Just manual maintenance. Well, calling it maintenance isn’t even correct. More like just tasks that I haven’t been able to fully automate yet, like the swapping of the cards in the avatar dolls. The dolls themselves, even when a monster is using it, can recharge their mana just fine. So as long as the monster using the avatar doll is willing to take a two hour break each day, there won’t be any mana problems.
Of course other than the avatar doll problem, with all Card Summoners on the ground, no one is up on HomeBase leveling up Wilma. She has been leveling up smoothly and was level 49 currently. Her skill level ups have been to her crafting related skills, Crafting, Blacksmithing and Enchanting. The reason I’m bringing attention to this is because she could potentially evolve now. Next time I, or perhaps even someone else, level her up, she will get to 51. And that might cause her to evolve. But depending on how things go, I might have to leave leveling Wilma up to Ria, or someone else. Ria just is the ‘go to’ when I assign this kind of work, as she is my maid. Also, giving her more reasons to use my cards might help her level up Card Summoner. Lua got a level to it after summoning Vampire monsters for nearly a month on a daily basis while she was teaching the villagers. Well, really thinking about it, she would have done it twice now. So maybe all of that experience just was finally enough for her to get the level.
Compare that to Alice who used her monsters to fight high power opponents. Well, she actually got her Card Summoner to level 3 all the way back after the behemoth incident, so it could also have something to do with her being fused with Mana, but I’m not sure. So maybe level 3 Card Summoner can be reached either by one big case of using my cards, or a long time of using them for daily tasks. I would say I’ll look into that, but realistically, I won’t. There just is no point, as I can’t cheat Card Summoner onto people. Maybe if I could, I would look for the level up conditions. If the skill even has any.
Well, level 2 did seem to have some. It does seem like you have to special summon a monster by a card effect for that at least, as Alex, Alice and Lua all got LV.2 Card Summoner after that. Though at the same time, Ria didn’t. But that might have been because she hadn’t had Card Summoner for that long at that time. And she did get her level 2 quite soon after special summoning monsters, so it did seem to help her.
Well, my ranting about Card Summoner aside, I have some important work to do. Mainly, automate the freaking avatar doll card exchanger. Just in case I can’t get to HomeBase for a day or two. There is no reason for me to be doing it manually, so let’s finally automate it.
When I began thinking outside of my initial idea, the solution to this problem was actually quite simple. That is something I probably should thank Mariina for, as the discussion I had with her about satellites and navigation really helped me open my eyes to just how set in my ways I can be. I think everything has to be done like it was done on Earth, as that is how I assume I should do it here, but I don’t.
So how do you automate things? You don’t. You just make someone else take care of it. And I’m not low on workers, as the avatar dolls are the workers.
So let me tell you how I actually did this. First problem was taking cards out of my Collection without me having to do that. For that, I actually went a bit of a roundabout way. Instead of figuring out a way to get the cards out of Collection, I figured out a way to get stuff out of Storage. Laura and Tahlia can easily move my cards from the Collection to Storage, and making a magic chest that linked with a specific folder of Storage wasn’t that challenging.
I just made a small box, actually it was an unlinked letter exchange box as I had one handy. Then I installed Pharaoh's Treasure to it, so I could turn that box into a magic bag. Well, a magic box in this case, but same difference. After that, I just installed Exchange to the box, linking it with my Storage.
Spoiler… I may have also installed Dark Mimic LV1 just to act as protection. Not that LV1 Dark Mimic can do too much, but it can bite someone’s hand if they try to get stuff from that box without my permission.
Spoiler [collapse]But yeah. Now with the box that was specifically linked with a very specific folder of Storage, I could have Laura or Tahlia transfer cards from the box to Storage and vice versa. Then from Storage those cards can be returned to the Collection.
As for the box and getting the cards from it to the avatar dolls, well, my avatar dolls can do that part. It shall be a task I give my Dragonmaids when they are available, and when they are doing something else, one of the Spellcasters can take care of it. Basically, they will take the cards out of the box, and put them into the card slots on the avatar dolls. Then they remove the cards from the other dolls, returning the cards into the box. Sure it will still involve some ‘manual labor’, but it won’t need me, so I see this as a perfect solution.
Now there won’t be any problems with the avatar dolls even if I cannot get to HomeBase for a few days.
Oh, and since I mentioned the Dragonmaids, I guess I can briefly talk about the new one I just recently got, Laundry Dragonmaid. As well as Dragonmaid Nudyarl as after I got Laundry, Kitchen was able to get me Nudyarl.
SpoilerLaundry or as we call her Nudyarl, or just Nudy, had taken over the laundry business on HomeBase. This was previously one of my jobs, as Storage made it kind of a joke. But after Nudy saw me doing it like that, she almost cried and told me that I don’t appreciate the fabrics enough. She then showed me how she did the laundry, and while the cleanliness level was about the same as from using Storage, the clothes she cleaned got a nice scent to them, as she actually uses some detergent. Storage doesn’t involve that, so it only makes things clean, and they won’t really smell of anything.
I guess to each their own, if you prefer just the ‘clean’ smell, or if you want that slight hint of a floral detergent. I can deal with either, but I can see the appeal in having that scent in your clothing. I actually quite like it when it comes to bedsheets, but in just my clothing, I might keep cleaning them with Storage.
“My Lord. You called for me.” A small catgirl said, as she entered my office.
I had called Eline to my room, as I had a few questions I wanted to ask her. And I might be offering Level Up services, as they do seem to be working well for Wilma.
“Yes. Please, take a seat. I just have a few questions regarding summoning magic.” I told her. That was the other reason I called her. Eline uses the local summoning magic and I want to know about it. I need to know if I can use it as an alternative to Pack Opener, or even combine it with Pack Opener. I even have the Summoner as an available race in One of Every Race, so looking into it feels like something I should do.
“I… I’m not sure what I can tell you, that you don’t already know.” Eline said. “You are a summoner way beyond my skills.”
“Perhaps. But I am a bit unique in that aspect, so I wanted to know about your summoning magic. Would you tell me about it?”
“... if you want me to.”
“Please do.”
Eline then told me about her first summoning, and the contracts she had. From that, I got a basic understanding of the local summoning magic.
First, you need to form a contract with a summonable beast. For that, you generally need a specific kind of a magic circle. We, well to be exact it was Alice, picked up a book that had said magic circle in it during our shopping trip yesterday. That magic circle should then be drawn on the ground, before the person who wants to make a contract has to fill it up with mana. If they have the aptitude for summoning magic, a random summonable beast will be summoned. Then from there, a contract will have to be made. The ways of making a contract seem to vary, as for Eline, all of her tigers asked for different things. For Tiggy, her baby tiger, Eline just had to feed it and name it. For Stripy the forest tiger, Eline was asked to brush it and name it. And finally for Sparky the lightning tiger, Eline was asked to ride the tiger, as the tiger sprinted at full speeds. After succeeding in that, the tiger asked for a name, and then the contract was formed.
By the way, in case you were wondering, the way Eline understood what the tigers were saying back then, the person who showed her summoning magic had Language Comprehension (beast), so he was able to translate for Eline. Also, Eline told me about the ways he had made contracts and a lot of them involved fighting. Even Eline was asked to fight by some of the random beasts that appeared, but she refused and sent them back instead. But for some reason, the tigers agreed to contracts easily. Her teacher told Eline that it is because she has a naturally high affinity towards tiger summons. That also made the mana cost of summoning tigers a lot lower for Eline, so even with her mediocre mana pool, she could summon something like the B-rank lightning tiger.
“Thank you Eline.” I honestly thanked the girl. “Now, do you think you’d like to make another contract? I’d like to see it happen.”
“But I don’t know how to draw the summoning circle.” Eline quickly said.
“Don’t worry. I have a book about it, so I can draw the circle.” I told her.
“Then… if you’d like me to, I will.”
On the grass yard of HomeBase, I took a stick and drew a magic circle on the ground. It took some time, as the circle was somewhat detailed, but not to the point where it couldn’t be done. In size, it had a diameter of about 7 meters. You could draw it smaller or larger, smaller ones took less mana to fill, but you generally get higher ranked monsters if you draw larger ones. Seven meters should guarantee at least a C-rank summon, but could go all the way to A-rank.
“Alright. Feel free to use it.” I said to Eline. “And if you want, I can make a more permanent one somewhere else.”
“... this might be too big for me. I’m not sure if I have enough mana for this.” Eline admitted.
“Oh. Well yeah. That could be an issue. I calculated that it should take about 800 mana though.” I said, as I rechecked the book for the math on how much mana a seven meter summoning circle should take.
“But if I use almost all of my mana on this, what about making the contract?” Eline asked.
“Oh yeah. That part needs mana too. Don’t worry. We have an app for that. Or a stone.” I quickly got a card out of Collection and activated it. “Pitch-Black Power Stone.”
Spoiler [collapse]“.. what is that?” After the black stone appeared in my hand, Eline asked about it.
“A stone that holds a lot of mana. You can use it to get your mana back after you fill up the circle.”
“Is there… such a rock?”
“Yeah. But you will see. If you would, please fill the circle with mana. I want to see if it works.” In all honesty, I just wanted someone who for sure can use the local summoning magic to try the circle before I try it.
“Then… I’ll do it now.” Eline said, as she kneeled on the grass and put both of her hands on the outer edge line of the magic circle.
It took her a while to fill up the magic circle, and as she did, she became noticeably drained. She likely did use most of her mana pool on it. Maybe I should have made the circle just 5 meters. But then there would have been basically no chance for an A-rank monster to appear.
After the circle was full of mana, it began to glow brightly and Eline quickly stepped away from it. As she did, she backed straight into me, so I took a gentle hold of her and placed the Pitch-Black Power Stone into her hand.
“Pour just a bit of mana into the stone, so you can get the mana out of it.” I told the girl, and she seemed to do as I asked, as her expression got noticeably better.
We watched as the circle glowed, until the light disappeared and in the middle of the circle stood a large lion. From head to butt, the lion was about 6 meters long, and it stood at just over 2 meters tall. That is its back height. If you consider the head, it was a bit taller.
(A mountain lion.) Laura identified the beast. (It is a B-rank earth attributed, cat-type beast.)
Wow. What a simple name. Mountain lion. Isn’t that like an actual animal on earth? Or was that just another name for a cougar? And do male cougars have a mane like lions do? Because this one clearly does.
Roar!
The tiger let out a roar, before it added some low-pitched grunts almost like it was speaking to us.
(Laura, would you be so kind.)
(It wants to see Eline use Earth magic. Then it will agree to a contract.) Laura translated for me.
Now that I knew as much, I told that to Eline.
“... but I can’t use any magic, other than summoning magic.” Eline said.
“Ah. Okay. Don’t worry. We can figure something out.” I said, as I pulled up my Collection.
Eline can use a card, as long as it isn’t in a sleeve, right? I must have a Spell-card that causes something that looks like earth magic. Just a shame the lion didn’t ask for fire or wind, as those would be a lot easier. Even lightning would be easier than earth.
I found two cards that should be good shows of earth magic, but I’m not so sure if they are good for this situation. We might just end up killing this lion. Well, if we do, I’ll get it back with Monster Reborn. At least I think I’ll be able to summon it back if it dies.
And this card is still better than having Eline activate Mountain or Wasteland on HomeBase.
Spoiler“Eline. I want you to hold this card.” I told the girl, as I traded the Power Stone in her hand for a card. “Its name is Fissure. I want you to say it.” I told her as soon as the card was no longer in my hand. I didn’t want to be the one to activate it.
“... fissure?” Eline said, and the card activated.
Spoiler [collapse]As soon as she had said so, the ground below the mountain lion’s feet split open, and the lion fell into the open fissure. And then, just as quickly as it had opened, the fissure closed and crushed the lion trapped within.
“B-Brian… we killed it. Before the contract.” Eline said in a slight panic. As she was panicking slightly, she probably didn’t even notice that the card in her hand was disappearing.
“Don’t worry. I got this covered.” I said, as I held the next card. “Monster Reborn, bring back that mountain lion.”
Spoiler [collapse]After I activated the card, the mountain lion that was just crushed by slabs of earth reappeared in the magic circle. It seemed frankly terrified by what just happened.
{Raw… raw…} It muttered that it surrendered and accepted the contract.
“Okay Eline. Go and make a contract.” I told my little catgirl.
