With Joshua’s arrangements, the dwarves let out a seat for both Messai and Ynor.
Messai was finally able to battle the demon face-to-face.
Even though this battle was not fought with swords and blood, Messai was at least given an opportunity to pressure the demon head-on. Through this opportunity, she could even defeat her.
Messai and Ynor’s storage crystals were both provided by Joshua. Ynor’s card storage crystal was Joshua’s own card storage crystal. There were multiple decks Joshua made in that storage crystal.
As for that female knight, her storage crystal was naturally an impoverished starting account without anything special.
“Choose Warlock as your class. You should know the rules of Hearthstone. Defeat her. This is an order,” Joshua said to Ynor quietly.
Among Joshua’s decks, the Warlock deck was extremely... brainless. It basically resembled a ‘zoo’ deck in its embryonic form. It was mainly focused on attacking the opponent. Winning against a basic deck would not be difficult at all. [1]
Messai poured her magic power into the black originium crystal. Upon doing so, the pictures stored in the crystal were projected toward her. Seeing it, she was completely confused as to what to do with the many interfaces present.
It was much more complicated than the battlefield that one could step into merely by holding a sword.
But, Messai soon found a class that she was fond of — the ‘Paladin,’ Uther.
Messai immediately fancied this righteous-looking knight the moment she saw his portrait. Uther’s portrait gave Messai the feeling of a legion commander of the templar army.
Starting accounts uses the basic cards. Messai possessed zero knowledge of Hearthstone. Thus, she naturally had no idea what she would be greeted with.
When she chose the aged Paladin as her hero, Ynor, her opponent, also finished making his class selection.
The black originium crystals were placed into the card channel. The curtains to the battle between a templar and a demon have been pulled apart!
“I will fight with honor!” [2]
Joshua had Sir Weissenasche find a veteran stage actor to say Uther’s opening remark. The voice acting... was quite emotional.
At the very least, when Messai heard that opening remark, she felt even greater acknowledgement toward the Paladin Uther. She had stubbornly believed Uther to be an existence representing the Ecclesiastical Templars.
“I am your nightmare!” [3]
Ynor’s class was the Warlock class that represented demons. Joshua had localized the Warlock class. Take for example the naming of demons. Joshua had changed to what the demons addressed him as.
Joshua had also changed the opening remark that the Warlock hero Gul’dan says. That being said, Joshua does not possess extravagant hope that he would be able to change the impression the people had of demons through ‘Hearthstone,’
In this Hearthstone match, Messai was fully immersed. Whether her hero or her cards, they all reconstructed the circumstances of the battle between the Ecclesiastical Templars and the demons.
Unfortunately, the final outcome of the battle ended in Ynor leading his demon army to utterly defeat Messai. Ynor had achieved a near total victory over Messai.
In the initial battle, Messai suffered a crushing defeat. She was practically beaten so badly that she cannot even fight back. Seeing the giant ‘defeat’ that appeared before her, Messai grew momentarily silent.
After the ‘defeat’ animation disappeared, a reward card pack appeared before Messai. That was the first freebie that Joshua would give to newbies.
Whenever a newly established black originium crystal finishes its first battle, it will receive a classic card pack.
The price for a black originium crystal was set to 10 gold. The first card pack was included in the price as a gift.
“The potential of the Paladin class far surpasses only this. There are a lot of powerful Paladin cards for you to gather...” said Joshua as he walked behind Messai.
“The desk you were using earlier was the basic Paladin deck. It is also the weakest Paladin deck. Inside that card pack might be a stronger Paladin card. Try opening the card pack to have a look.”
The young female knight of the Ecclesiastical Templars never managed to realize what she just heard were the ‘whispers of the devil.’ Messai was unwilling to accept her near-crushing defeat under Ynor’s hands. She wanted to challenge Ynor again.
From their match, Messai had realized that her deck seemed extremely weak... There was even a lot of minions that had nothing to do with the Paladin class, nothing to do with Ecclesiastical Templars!
Holding that hope, Messai began her life’s first luck of the draw.
“Uncommon”
The rarest card Messai managed to open from the card pack was actually a guaranteed Uncommon card. It would appear that the gods’ protection did not increase her luck.
But, that Uncommon card’s name was ‘Equality.’ It could be said to be one of the strongest Paladin cards. [4]
The effect of ‘Equality’ changes the health of all minions to 1. Combined with any AoE card... as long as there’s no Divine Shield, it could practically clear the board. [5,6,7]
“Again!”
After having played a match, Messai was able to vaguely feel that ‘Equality’ was a very powerful card.
She could be said to be the representative of the Ecclesiastical Templars. All the dwarves and humans were watching her match... the match between the Ecclesiastical Templars and demons!
Messai does not wish to hear, while walking on the streets of Norland in the future, others discussing among themselves saying things like ‘Did you know? In that tavern, the demons managed to crush the Ecclestiastical Templars completely.’
This was no longer an issue of whether she could win in this card game or not. This battle was now intimately related to the honor of the Ecclesiastical Templars.
“Ynor, you’re on a half-day break. You are now representing your race in this match.”
After being granted the permission by Joshua, the battle between the Templars of the Holy Church and the demons, the battle that has continued for a millennium, once again unfolded on the card table!
The outcome of the battle ended in the Templar’s crushing defeat again! The soldiers of the demon army scaled the city walls and effortlessly massacred the new recruits of the Templar army.
“Sure enough, the Paladin class is incredibly weak. So a Warlock is actually that powerful?”
“You’re planning to play Warlock?”
The dwarves standing nearby began to discuss the game. Due to them being dwarves, the majority of them chose to focus on the Warrior class. After all, Warrior was the class that represented manliness and strength the best.
Very few dwarves attempted the other eight classes.
Messai was able to hear the discussions of the dwarves. Inevitably, their discussions brought upon great humiliation to her. This humiliation was all caused by her own hands. She has been defeated by this demon seven times in a row.
Had this been on the normal battlefield, this record would be enough to make her so humiliated that she can’t even bring herself to face the gods she served.
“I think you can give Mage a try. Miss knight, Mage is the class that’s most suited for new players.”
Joshua presented to Messai a proposal that could allow her to defeat Ynor.
“No! I will definitely defeat that demon using this class! Again!”
Messai was unwilling to give up on her faith that easily. Even if it was only a game.
“Let me call to your attention that it’s nearly midnight now,” said Joshua.
Only after hearing that did Messai turn toward the windows. It was already very late at night. She cannot play Hearthstone leisurely all night like the dwarves. The Templars of the Holy Church possess very rigorous rules.
Among them included a certain time that they must offer prayers, a certain time they must go to sleep and a certain time they must wake up at! Messai had missed the time to offer the night prayers. To her, that was an unforgivable mistake.
But, Messai was itching to retrieve the Ecclesiastical Templars’ lost honor in another round of Hearthstone! Unfortunately, between honor and the rules that she upheld for over a dozen years, Messai had no choice but to leave this match of honor to tomorrow.
“Tomorrow... I will return tomorrow...”
Messai clenched her teeth. After leaving those words, she rushed out of the tavern. She was still able to hear the ridicules and laughters from the dwarves behind her even after she left the tavern.
She vowed that she would one day make those dwarves and that demon realize how powerful the Paladin class was!