Byakuran turned and walked toward the request board.
After looking through the available jobs and finding nothing suitable, he decided that today would mark the beginning of his grand magic study plan.
With that in mind, he walked over to Cana, intending to start by learning her Card Magic.
Cana was still laying out cards at the table by the window.
Byakuran pulled out the chair opposite her and sat down.
Cana raised her eyes.
“What’s up? Do you need something?”
“It’s nothing much. I just wanted to learn Card Magic from you, if you don’t mind.”
“Aren’t you using Wood Release and Nature Magic? What made you suddenly want to learn Card Magic?”
“I think Card Magic would be pretty interesting, so I want to learn more about it.”
Hearing his answer, Cana rolled her eyes inwardly.
She looked at Byakuran sitting across from her and remained silent for a moment.
Byakuran’s formidable strength in Wood Release and Nature Magic had already spread throughout the guild.
A guy who could transform a forest hundreds of meters wide with a single spell should have been relentlessly training his already ridiculously powerful main magic.
Instead, he had come to her just because he thought Card Magic was interesting.
The words “neglecting one’s proper job” were practically on the tip of her tongue.
“Fine, then. But I haven’t been studying Card Magic for very long myself, so I might not be able to teach you much.”
As she said this, her gaze swept across the stack of discarded cards with blackened edges.
Something seemed to bother her for a moment, but she quickly raised her head again, her expression returning to normal.
“…But I do understand some of the basic principles. If you want to learn, I can explain those first.”
“I’m already grateful that you’re willing to teach me. I’ll learn as much as I can.”
“Alright, then. How much do you know about Card Magic?”
“Hmm… You can cast magic just by showing a card?”
Cana stared at Byakuran, momentarily speechless.
“That means you know absolutely nothing about it.”
“Hehe.”
Byakuran gave an awkward chuckle, trying to brush off the embarrassment.
“Never mind. Let me first explain the basic principles of Card Magic.”
“As a Holder-type magic, Card Magic has certain advantages and disadvantages compared with your Caster-type magic.”
“The biggest advantage is that you don’t need to learn the corresponding spells yourself. As long as you activate a card, you can use the magic stored within it.”
“This allows you to use multiple types of magic and switch between them at any time, giving you far more tactical combinations.”
“Many mages spend their entire lives specializing in a single spell. After all, dividing their energy to learn additional magic often produces diminishing returns. It’s usually better to focus on one type of magic and become extremely proficient in it.”
“Card Magic, however, allows you to skip that learning process, granting the user incredible versatility.”
“But its disadvantages are just as obvious.”
“Card Magic not only requires the user to possess enough magical power to control the cards, but also requires sufficiently powerful cards.”
“In reality, the strength of most cards still falls short of that of a Caster-type mage who specializes in a single spell.”
“At the same time, the upper limit of Card Magic depends not only on the user’s magical power, but also on the cards themselves.”
As she spoke, Cana took out a new card, held it up, and slowly began pouring her magical power into it.
“Take the Emperor’s Wind Blade in my hand, for example. Its upper limit is only enough to summon a single wind blade to attack a target.”
“If you don’t inject enough magical power, the card won’t activate, and the magic power you’ve used will simply be wasted. If you inject more magical power, the wind blade will become somewhat stronger.”
Cana gradually increased the amount of magical power flowing into the card.
The magic circle on its surface slowly lit up.
As she continued pouring in power, the card itself began to heat up.
Cana immediately stopped.
“However, if you inject too much magical power and exceed the card’s load-bearing limit, the card will be destroyed.”
“Therefore, using Card Magic requires you to have a sufficient understanding of each card’s magical load capacity. Otherwise, you’ll either waste your magical power or even destroy the card itself.”
“The load-bearing limit of a card depends on the materials used to make it. The higher the quality of the material, the greater the load it can withstand.”
“If you wanted to make a card capable of bearing the hundreds-of-meters-wide Birth of the Tree Realm you used earlier, you’d need to use extremely high-grade materials. The cost of producing such a card would be exorbitant.”
“Because of this, Card Magic is generally more suitable as auxiliary magic rather than a primary means of attack.”
After listening to Cana’s explanation, Byakuran gained a rough understanding of Card Magic.
Simply put, it was a form of “pay-to-win” magic.
He needed to find someone capable of creating cards suited to his needs.
The more powerful the card, the more expensive the materials would be, while the difficulty of producing it would also increase accordingly.
Its single-target destructive power was generally inferior to that of a specialized Caster-type mage, but its versatility was far greater.
That didn’t mean Card Magic was weak, either.
For example, Mystogan was a pure Holder-type magic user who didn’t possess particularly powerful magic power of his own, yet he had still reached the level of an S-Class mage in Fairy Tail.
“I see.”
Byakuran thought for a moment before asking,
“Are the cards you use made by yourself, Cana, or are they custom-made by someone else?”
“I researched and made them myself.”
Byakuran’s eyes immediately lit up.
“That’s amazing! Then how do you actually infuse magic into the cards? Do you have to know all those spells yourself?”
“Not at all.”
Cana held up the Emperor’s Wind Blade card.
“Take this card, for example. It actually has a wind-blade magic circle engraved into it.”
“When you activate the card, the magic circle is automatically triggered and releases the wind blade.”
“Can magic created by someone else also be engraved into a card?”
Byakuran’s interest grew even stronger.
“For example, could my magic be engraved into one?”
“In theory, yes.”
Cana thought for a moment before continuing.
“But engraving advanced magic into a card has extremely high requirements for the materials.”
“Your magical power is also extremely powerful, Byakuran. A card capable of bearing your magic would require even higher-grade materials.”
“Besides, I can’t create advanced cards like that yet. You’ll have to find someone else and see whether they’re capable of making them.”
“I see.”
Byakuran nodded thoughtfully.
“As long as it’s possible, that’s enough. I’m not in a hurry to make finished products.”
“I want to learn how to make cards myself, just like you. Then I can collect all kinds of useful magic and gradually expand my magical arsenal.”
“After all, there are so many interesting spells in this world. It would be a shame if I could only use one or two of them.”
Byakuran smiled.
“Thank you for explaining everything, Cana. Would it be alright if I followed you from now on and learned how to create Card Magic?”
“No problem!”
Cana answered immediately, a hint of excitement in her voice.
“I couldn’t ask for anything better than having someone to discuss it with!”
Having another person who shared her enthusiasm naturally brightened her mood.
Although Card Magic had many limitations, its versatility was quite impressive.
As long as someone learned how to create cards, they could earn money through requests and use the rewards to obtain materials capable of bearing increasingly powerful magic.
That would allow them to conveniently utilize all kinds of magic that interested them.
Overall, Card Magic was still worth learning.
For the foreseeable future, Byakuran had decided that his goal would be to master Card Magic.