“The City Lord’s Mansion’s rewards will have to wait until Principal Gu returns, but as for the academy’s compensation, I have the authority to issue it to you right now.” Zhou Rong extended a slender hand across her desk, offering a sleek, silver-edged card to Luke.
“This is a Storage Card.
It holds an internal dimensional space of twenty cubic meters.
Inside, you will find twenty blue-grade materials, fifty green-grade materials, and eighty white-grade materials.
The total market value sits somewhere between 4.8 and 5 million.” Influenced by the overarching Magic Card Civilization, countless everyday items and spatial technologies existed in the form of cards.
Storage Cards were essentially high-end technological products, engineered by reverse-analyzing the spatial manipulation techniques of advanced Magic Card Masters.
Accepting the smooth card, Luke felt a flicker of genuine surprise.
He ran his thumb over the metallic edge, not having expected the school’s internal reward to be quite this generous.
He naturally wasn’t going to politely decline Zhou Rong’s offer.
In a very practical sense, he had earned every bit of this wealth on the battlefield.
Although he had harvested a massive haul of monster parts during the recent joint examination, a Magic Card Master could never have too many resources.
The blue-grade materials alone were rare commodities, possessing enough latent energy to serve as the foundation for crafting Seven-Star Magic Cards.
Their sheer rarity accounted for more than half of the Storage Card’s astronomical value.
Sending a quick thread of mental energy into the card’s dimensional space, a hint of pleasant surprise flashed in Luke’s eyes.
The glowing piles of sorted materials contained quite a few specific catalysts and elemental cores that perfectly met the requirements for the deck expansions he had been planning.
“Keep up the excellent work, Luke.” Catching the subtle shift in his expression, Zhou Rong offered a warm, encouraging smile.
“I expect you to achieve an even more spectacular score in the upcoming college entrance examination.” Under normal circumstances, the academy’s internal rewards would never have reached this tier of luxury.
However, Luke’s dominant performance in the joint examination, combined with the overwhelming destructive power demonstrated by the Dark Magician Girl, had far eclipsed the standard of ordinary examinees.
If the administration had stuck to the standard reward bracket, Third High School would have looked incredibly stingy to the outside world.
Therefore, Zhou Rong had taken it upon herself to temporarily inflate his compensation package.
She had done so without Principal Gu’s explicit consent, but she was entirely confident that the Principal would have made the exact same tactical decision.
As long as Luke maintained this momentum into the national college entrance examination, he would single-handedly elevate the prestige of Third High School.
That kind of elite reputation would undoubtedly secure them better funding and a higher caliber of student enrollment in the coming year.
Leaving the academy grounds, Luke enjoyed the quiet walk back to his residence.
The moment the front door clicked shut behind him, he raised his hand, channeling a familiar pulse of energy to summon his partner.
“Mana, take a moment to familiarize yourself with the house,” Luke said, his tone softening as the vibrant, magical aura of the Dark Magician Girl materialized in his living room.
“For the next little while, I’ll be focusing on crafting a new plug-in card specifically for you.” Striking while the iron was hot, he gave her free rein of the space and immediately spread his newly acquired materials across the worktable.
Hearing his instructions, Mana’s bright eyes scanned the mundane human dwelling with intense curiosity.
She floated from room to room, inspecting the furniture and appliances with the innocent wonder of a scholar discovering a new ruin.
After completing her grand tour, she drifted back into the living room.
Suspending herself in mid-air right beside Luke’s chair, she rested her chin in her hands, her legs kicking idly behind her.
She simply blinked, watching his focused profile with a quiet, affectionate intensity.
As if recalling a fond memory or anticipating something wonderful, a soft, involuntary smile curved Mana’s lips.
Luke remained completely oblivious to the Dark Magician Girl’s tender observation, his entire consciousness submerged in the delicate art of card creation.
The underlying world-building and lore of Yu-Gi-Oh!
had already been firmly established in his mind.
Coupled with the fact that the simulation progress for this specific item had reached one hundred percent during the heat of the joint examination, his crafting speed was currently operating at a terrifying pace.
‘During one of her many adventures, Dark Magician Girl – Mana uncovered a highly classified, ancient magical artifact known as the Magic Formula.”After a long period of intense study and meditation, she fully mastered the arcane secrets hidden within the Magic Formula, smoothly transforming its ancient spells into her own personal power.’ As Luke fed the lore background into the Magic Card Editor, heavy waves of raw Magic Power began to surge and crash within his spiritual sea.
[Magic Card background passed.
Please complete the card art and insert materials!] Using his highly concentrated mental power as ink, Luke visualized the complex, glowing pages of the ancient tome.
The card art of the Magic Formula slowly materialized in the void, and the physical materials he fed into the system dissolved, staining the mental image with vibrant, permanent colors.
[Construction successful.
Magic Power Feedback obtained!] ‘Crafting Spell Cards and Trap Cards can also trigger Magic Power Feedback?’ Luke paused, slightly stunned as a warm, heavy current of pure energy flooded his veins.
This physical sensation had not occurred during the simulated construction phase.
Taking a moment to analyze the rush of power, the logic quickly clicked into place.
‘That makes sense.
Simulated construction is purely theoretical data; it doesn’t manifest a physical reality, so there’s no energy return.
But this is a genuine creation.’He flexed his fingers, feeling the enhanced density of his mana.’However, compared to crafting a living monster card, the Magic Power Feedback generated by Spell and Trap Cards is significantly smaller.’ The creation of the Magic Formula wasn’t quite enough to shatter his bottleneck and push him into the Battle General Realm, but it vastly expanded his internal reserves, bringing him dangerously close to the threshold of a breakthrough.
A few seconds later, a green-backed card—distinctly different in design from an Elf monster card—solidified within the Magic Card Editor.
Luke reached out and pulled it from the interface.
[Magic Formula] Type: Equip Card Effect: After equipping, all attributes increase by 15%, and Magic Power recovery speed increases by 100%!
‘It doesn’t have a designated quality or star level, and it’s classified strictly as an Equip Card rather than a standard Spell.’Luke ran his thumb over the smooth surface, analyzing the data.’The effect is entirely one-dimensional, but a flat fifteen percent boost to all combat attributes is a massive tactical advantage.”Combine that with a one hundred percent increase in Magic Power recovery speed, and this card’s value to Mana is absolutely staggering.’ For a Magic Card Spirit whose entire combat style revolved around high-output magical bombardment, doubling her mana regeneration was nothing short of a divine skill.
Just like the unpredictability of Magic Power Feedback, the simulation phase offered no way to preview a card’s final numerical stats.
The simulation existed purely to guarantee the success rate of the physical crafting process.
A thrilling thought crossed his mind.
He had forged this Equip Card using relatively low-tier materials.
What would happen if he used perfect-grade or legendary-level catalysts in the future?
Would the percentage multipliers scale infinitely?
The sheer potential made his blood run hot.
Holding the newly minted Magic Formula, Luke turned his chair and gently pulled Mana down from her hovering position.
“Come here and try this.
This is the Equip Card I promised you.” The theoretical stats looked flawless, but the true test was whether the Dark Magician Girl’s spiritual matrix could smoothly integrate the item, and how it would feel in practical application.
“Mm!” Mana nodded brightly, taking the green-backed card from his fingers.
A look of deep concentration settled over her delicate features as she pressed the Magic Formula directly against her heart.
Under Luke’s astonished gaze, the solid card dissolved into particles of emerald light, sinking effortlessly into the Dark Magician Girl’s chest.
Instantly, the ambient temperature in the room spiked.
Luke could physically feel Mana’s magical aura expanding, growing denser and more volatile by the second.
Her power level surged upward rapidly, only to slam to a sudden, grinding halt right before crossing a critical threshold.
“I feel incredible…
my internal reserves have expanded so much,” Mana whispered, opening her eyes.
She looked down at her hands, flexing her fingers as pink magical energy crackled between them.
“But it feels like there’s an invisible, heavy wall pressing down on me.
I can’t push my strength any higher than this.” Her seamless fusion with the Magic Formula had caused no physical discomfort, and her precise description of the bottleneck perfectly confirmed what Luke’s senses had already told him.
[Akarin’s Note: Enjoying the story?