An Enthusiastic Mana 5: Instant Kill!
An Enthusiastic Mana Chapter 5: Instant Kill!
An Enthusiastic Mana She wore a pointed blue hat adorned with vibrant pink stripes.
Beneath its brim, long golden hair cascaded down her back, framing a face with emerald-green eyes brimming with innocent charm.
A yellow choker rested around her neck, anchored by a gleaming red gemstone in the center.
Her outfit was iconic: a blue off-the-shoulder tube top smoothly connected to a short pink cape and a matching pleated skirt, leaving her fair, delicate skin exposed to the air.
In her hands, she gripped a blue staff tipped with a swirling, flat sphere at the crest and a smaller orb at the base.
Blue gauntlets and boots, both trimmed in bright pink, completed the look.
Cute.
Beautiful.
Utterly flawless.
Looking at the living, breathing Dark Magician Girl standing right in front of him, Luke finally felt the surreal impact of an anime character stepping out of a screen and into reality.
He had definitely made the right choice!
As Luke admired her, Mana took a moment to process her surroundings.
The second her emerald eyes locked onto him, her face lit up.
“Master!” she cheered, launching herself forward and tackling him right to the floor in a tight, affectionate hug.
“So enthusiastic?” Luke grunted, catching her soft frame.
He lay stunned on the ground for a second before the realization hit him.
From the very moment a Magic Card was successfully forged, the summoned spirit possessed absolute loyalty to their Magic Card Master.
Their innate affection was maxed out from birth; betrayal was a physical impossibility.
After all, to a Magic Card spirit, the Master was their creator, their parent, and their entire world.
This held true for both Original Magic Cards and mass-produced variants.
“Such high intelligence!” Up in the viewing gallery, Da Baiman gaped at the screen.
“The quality of this Dark Magician Girl is definitely not low.” A Magic Card’s quality directly correlated with its cognitive awareness.
The higher the grade, the more human-like the intelligence.
Conversely, a highly intelligent spirit guaranteed a top-tier card.
“This Original Magic Card of Luke’s has likely reached the Collection level, and its star rating won’t be low either,” Cang Fenghua added, his eyes narrowing in analytical focus.
“Actually, right when the card was taking shape, I sensed the unified examination space around Luke showing signs of spatial distortion.
It seems my initial read wasn’t wrong.” Quality reached the Collection level, and a high star rating!
Hearing Cang Fenghua’s assessment, the surrounding officials exchanged shocked glances.
Luke’s monstrous talent had shattered their expectations yet again.
Principal Gu’s face was practically splitting with a massive grin; the surprise this student delivered was simply staggering.
On the other hand, Zhao Chengyuan and Da Baiman were drowning in envy.
If jealousy could be measured on a pain scale, the two of them would be in critical condition!
The first stage of the exam flew by.
The moment the countdown hit zero, a heavy, resonant bell echoed throughout the entire unified examination space.
A blinding flash of light swept across the hall, and any candidate who had failed to successfully construct their Magic Card was forcibly teleported out.
“It’s over?
The first stage is already over?!” “This unified exam was modeled exactly after the national college entrance exams…
Does this mean I wouldn’t even pass the first round of the real thing?
No, I refuse to accept this!” Across the sprawling plazas of the three high schools, flashes of light deposited the eliminated students.
Wails of despair quickly filled the air as reality set in, leaving many candidates with pale, tear-stained faces.
Stumbling at the very first hurdle of the unified exam was a crushing blow to their confidence.
A small fraction managed to keep their composure, reminding themselves that this was merely a mock exam.
They still had time to improve before the real college entrance examination.
But for the vast majority, their futures suddenly looked incredibly bleak.
Amidst the weeping and frustration, every eliminated candidate’s personal terminal buzzed.
A live streaming link popped up on their screens.
The footage rotated through the remaining candidates who had successfully passed the first stage and were still standing inside the examination space.
The crowd quickly realized that while their own trials were over, they could still spectate the rest of the event.
It was a bittersweet consolation prize, making their moods all the more complicated.
[Congratulations to all candidates for completing the first stage of the assessment.
The second stage will now commence: Defending against Fierce Beasts.] [In this stage, a wave of Fierce Beasts will spawn every five minutes.
You are only permitted to use the Magic Card produced during the first stage to defend yourself.] [If all of your Magic Cards are killed, you will be teleported out of the unified examination space and eliminated.
The final ranking will be determined by the survival time and elimination order of each candidate.] “So the second stage is just a monster survival mode?
Makes sense,” Luke muttered, reading over the glowing text.
“Since the crafting phase is done, the natural next step is live combat testing.
A new wave every five minutes…
I just wonder how fast the difficulty scales.” Beside him, Dark Magician Girl tightened her grip on her staff, her face radiating absolute confidence.
“Master, please leave the upcoming battles to me!” As a Magic Card spirit, Mana possessed zero hesitation toward combat.
Fighting for her Master was the very core of her existence.
“This is your debut battle.
Win it beautifully,” Luke said, giving her an encouraging nod.
A Six-Star, Collection-quality, peak intermediate Magic Card like the Dark Magician Girl wasn’t going to be defeated so easily.
As they spoke, the air ten meters away began to warp.
The snarling figure of a Fierce Beast materialized into the arena.
[Forest Wolf] [Race: Beast] [Quality: Common] [Level: One-Star] [Skills: Wind Rend Claw, Roar] It was a one-star ordinary fierce beast—absolute bottom-tier trash in the monster hierarchy.
Before the Forest Wolf could even open its jaws to howl, Mana twirled her staff.
A sphere of concentrated dark energy blasted forward.
Dark Magic Attack!
The energy sphere slammed into the wolf, instantly vaporizing it into pixels of light.
The beast didn’t even have time to register its own death.
All that remained on the ground was a single, curved tooth.
“It drops loot?” Luke walked over and accepted the [Forest Wolf Fang] that Mana proudly presented to him like a prized treasure.
The system’s voice echoed in his mind again.
[Upon killing a Fierce Beast, relevant crafting materials will drop at random.
These materials belong to the candidate.] “This really feels like playing a game,” Luke chuckled.
He weighed the [Forest Wolf Fang] in his palm before tossing it directly into his Magic Card Editor interface.
“Shame it’s only the lowest-grade grey material, though.” Aside from being the core engine for creating cards, the Magic Card Editor also functioned as a spatial inventory for materials, making it incredibly convenient.
In this world, crafting materials were divided into nine distinct rarity tiers: Grey, White, Green, Blue, Purple, Orange, Gold, Red, and Rainbow.
The higher the tier, the rarer the material, and the stronger the resulting Magic Card.
The [Forest Wolf Fang] he just acquired sat firmly at the absolute bottom of the barrel.
Then again, what else could he expect from a basic Forest Wolf?
On the bright side, the system’s auto-loot function meant he didn’t have to waste his own magic power casting a Peeling Technique to harvest the corpse, which allowed his Magic Card spirit to maintain her form for a longer duration.
The five-minute timer ticked down.
The spatial distortion returned, heralding the second wave of fierce beasts.
This time, the attackers were still Forest Wolves, but their coats gleamed with a sharper edge.
Their quality had bumped up to the Rare level, and their numbers had tripled to three.
“Here they come!” Outside the unified examination space, the eliminated students stared intently at their terminal screens.
The announcement of the second phase’s rules had reignited their focus.
Even though they had washed out early, they were desperate to see the combat phase unfold.
It was the perfect opportunity to scout the elite candidates from their own academy, as well as gauge the terrifying strength of the rival high schools.