Age of Summoner

"Thirty thousand?"

Joke’s eyes went wide on what he just heard. He could hardly believe that going goods-hunting inside Arcadia to build up a card in the outside world would be able to earn such a high amount of money.

“Thirty thousand is the price for just a Super Rare card. Did you know that someone once successfully collected all the Monster Part Cards for an Ultimate Rare? Even though he didn't sell off that card, someone once offered that summoner up to two million baht. "

"Two million?"

The numbers were starting to double up at a rate that Joke could barely comprehend. Either way, he was still unfamiliar with the world of AOS that seemed to have such an unexpectedly high amount of money circulating in the community.

"But just like that, it’s not an easy task. That summoner spent three years gathering those Monster Part Cards before collecting them all. This is something very far from your reach. For a beginner’s level, I think it’s more than okay to just collect a rare card and sell it for a couple of thousands.”

“And how long does it take to collect a rare card’s parts?”

“Um… it depends on a summoner's diligence and luck. If you take your time in Arcadia and with a bit of luck, a week might be enough to collect all the parts.” She shrugged. “A rare card only requires around ten or twenty Monster Part Cards to create them. You can also earn money from going on a quest from the shop along with that too, don’t you agree?”

“What about the quests that are in Arcadia? Do you also have to pay in order to accept those quests?” Joke asked.

"If it's a quest in Arcadia, almost all of the rewards are in-game items or in-game currency. But the real reward should be information leading you to other new quests that have better rewards or other monsters that drop better items. You might have a chance to encounter monsters that drop out rare parts, too.”

Joke nodded understandably while thinking that profit could be generated at a faster rate if he accepted quests from both sources—whether from card stores and CF or from inside Arcadia—by focusing on quests that were similar to each other.

“And how much does a newbie usually make in a month?”

“A month?” Madame Fon paused shortly. “As for professionals, they don’t keep track of their earnings monthly. They track it every week. But it’s different for each person. If you’re skilled, spend a lot of time in Arcadia, and are on the lucky side, it’s around eight thousand to a bit over ten thousand.”

"Per week?" Joke’s eyes went wide.

“Yes, but that only applies to summoners who are more skilled. There are around four to five people in our shop who can do that—and you’ve just met one of them yesterday.”

Madame Fon then laughed out loud, causing Joke to raise his eyebrows.

"You mean, Rin?"

"Correct," she said cheerfully. “Rin’s currently the strongest summoner in my shop. She is more than qualified to take the pro player exam, but she was busy with her studies these past years, so her rank did not bulge much. But if she could win one more tournament, it should be enough to take the pro player exam. Her income now is about twenty thousand per week, I think?”

Joke’s jaw dropped open. He was able to sense that Rin was very skilled at it from the way she taught and explained to him about the cards yesterday, but he did not expect that she would be at a level where she could make twenty thousand a week.

“So, she’s aiming to become a pro player?”

“Yes. Right now, she just needs a sponsor. If she can win a couple of more tournaments—C Leagues at the minimum—there’ll be decent esports teams approaching her.”

“And she does it while still studying… that’s amazing.”

Madame Fon chuckled at his shocked expression.

“Esports is very popular these days. The earlier you start, the higher the chances of success you get over the others. Many of them started out as amateurs even when they were still in school—some of them passed the pro player exam but could also take on other works at the same time… Oh, but with the exception of those who belong to an organization's team. They won’t let you take on other jobs because they want you to focus only on the training for competitions only.”

By just listening to that explanation, Joke felt that the world of AOS was beyond his comprehension, and esports was something very new to him. He must first open up and accept the fact that this was indeed a career that could make money… (a huge amount, even.)

“So, what if I’m interested in becoming an amateur player?”

“You just go ahead with it. Nobody’s forbidding you.” Madame Fon smiled broadly. “You don’t have to ask around about things like this. If you want to do it, just go ahead and do it. I can’t guarantee you how much you’ll be making. You probably won't be making anything more than a thousand during your first weeks. But if you’re not giving up and take it seriously, the better the results will be—simple reasoning. That can be said about everything in this world, isn’t it?”

Madame Fon then patted him on the shoulder before getting up from the sofa. She put the coffee cup to her lips and finished off the caffeinated drink in her hand. Her words left Joke stilled as he pondered on the question of what he should be doing.

“I'll be straight-up with you and tell you that it’s not easy in the world of AOS. Many people dream of being successful in this industry—many of them started even sooner than you—but I’ve seen a lot of these people failing to achieve their dreams.” She sighed. “If you’re really interested in this world, I don’t want you to put money as your main target. Ask yourself carefully: how do you feel when holding these cards in your hands? If you only see them as money-making machines, I don’t think that you’re suitable for the job. But, if you felt enjoyment and did not want to put it down… you can give it a go. Because I always believe that in order to excel at something, you have to feel it from the inside—not because there's some external factor influencing you to do so.”

At the end of the statement, Madame Fon threw her paper cup into a waste sorting garbage bin in the corner before smiling slyly. She then walked back to the counter at the front of the shop, ready to get back to work.

The shop owner was stretching lazily to freshen up while a customer as Joke was still sitting on the sofa pondering to himself. He was still lost and confused, not knowing what to do next with his life. There were arrays of solutions for him to choose from, from giving up and going back to Suphanburi to giving it his all in fighting for his own dreams.

And people like him despised defeat more than anything.

So, he tried asking himself the question of why his body had led him here to this store when he had to make an important decision. And once he thought back about the events happening yesterday, he finally understood it…

In that short amount of time he was in the world of Arcadia… and the time he went on a duel with that bot…

These were a few moments in his life when he could completely forget about everything else that was going on—even all of his stress in finding work. There was nothing that could come to invalidate this conclusion as there was just one simple reason as to why he was still here.

The reason was that he truly enjoyed his time spent playing it.

With that conclusion, he finally stood up. The young man walked towards the counter where Madame Fon was sitting behind. She turned around and looked him in the eyes along with shooting him with a smile—a smile that seemed to be asking him the question “What are you going to do next, then?”—which Joke sighed as he made his big decision.

“I don't have my own deck yet. Can you give me some recommendations?”