Magic Card Era: Infinite Deck Enhancement — Chapter 16

Chapter 16: Magic Cylinder! Perfect Mana!

Confirming that his perception was spot on, Luke listened to Dark Magician Girl’s excited feedback with a thoughtful expression. “Take a moment to familiarize yourself with your current strength,” he instructed, his tone calm and measured. “I’m going to run another test.”

Closing his eyes, Luke sank back into his mental landscape and activated the simulated construction interface once more. This time, the blueprint he envisioned was the iconic Magic Cylinder.

As the target of the simulation locked in, Luke felt the familiar, steady drain on his mental power.

Seeing him enter a state of deep concentration, Mana didn’t utter a word to disturb him. Instead, she closed her own eyes and silently mapped out the deep changes within her body. Her overall attributes had surged by a full fifteen percent, and her Magic Power recovery rate had doubled. Such a massive, sudden improvement required careful calibration before she could wield it flawlessly in live combat.

[Dark Magic encompasses specialized techniques known as “tricks.” As the inheritor of the Dark Magician’s legacy, Dark Magician Girl has naturally mastered these unique spells.]

[Among these specialized techniques, Hat Trick – Magic Cylinder stands as one of Dark Magician Girl – Mana’s absolute signature abilities.]

Time ticked by in the quiet room. Once the simulation progress for the Magic Cylinder finally hit one hundred percent, Luke immediately began the physical creation process in reality.

Following the exact same rhythmic flow he used to forge the Magic Spellbook, a brand-new Magic Card soon materialized within the glowing confines of the Magic Card Editor.

[Construction successful. Magic Power Feedback obtained. Realm broken through to One-Star Battle General! Second Magic Card Summoning Slot unlocked!]

This time, the Magic Power Feedback cascading from the card’s creation triggered a qualitative evolution rather than just a quantitative one. A torrent of pure energy rushed through Luke’s mana pathways, expanding his core and successfully pushing him into the Battle General Realm. Simultaneously, the ethereal chains binding his spiritual sea loosened, unlocking his second Magic Card summoning slot.

“A breakthrough.” A sharp, satisfied smile flashed across Luke’s face as he clenched his fist, sensing the surging, potent Magic Power coursing through his veins. The feedback from creating the Magic Cylinder had been the final drop of water needed to overflow the cup, pushing him past his previous limits.

For any Magic Card Master, every major realm breakthrough grants an additional summoning slot. The most immediate impact is a raw spike in overall combat strength, but beyond that, it exponentially enriches a Master’s tactical options on the battlefield.

However, this newfound power always came with a strict caveat: the issue of Magic Power distribution.

While having more summoning slots meant a Master could call upon multiple Magic Card Spirits to handle complex, multi-front situations, it also meant their innate Magic Power consumption would double, if not triple. Summoning a Spirit was only half the battle; maintaining their physical form and fueling their abilities constantly drained the Master’s reserves. Learning how to perfectly balance that consumption was a lethal tightrope walk that every true Magic Card Master had to master.

After taking a few deep breaths to adapt to the heavy, intoxicating rush of his realm advancement, Luke drew the newly forged Magic Card from the editor.

Unlike the emerald-green hue of the Magic Spellbook, the Magic Cylinder’s base color was a deep, striking purplish-red.

[Magic Cylinder]

Type: Counter Card

Effect: Can be triggered actively, or passively upon receiving a fatal attack. Hides and transfers the specified target’s position three times. Cooldown: 12 hours.

“It’s not an Equip Card this time, but a Counter Card?”

The system’s classification left Luke slightly bewildered. This deviated from his original assumption; he had fully expected it to be an Equip Card functioning in the exact same manner as the Magic Spellbook.

Still, a label was just a label. Whether it was an Equip Card or a Counter Card, as long as it was successfully forged and could amplify his Spirit’s combat prowess, that was all that mattered.

Similar to the Magic Spellbook, the Magic Cylinder possessed only a single effect, but its raw utility was absolutely terrifying.

Three guaranteed spatial transfers meant three absolute chances to cheat death. What made it truly very useful was the passive trigger condition. Because the Magic Cylinder would automatically activate to protect its master from a lethal blow, the Magic Card Spirit holding it could completely abandon their defense. As long as the transfer counts remained, Mana could throw herself into battle with a hyper-aggressive, berserker combat style to secure victory.

Even in the face of a blindingly fast ambush where the Spirit couldn’t physically react in time, the Magic Cylinder would step in autonomously, ensuring their absolute safety.

“Perfect.” This was the ultimate insurance policy for his Spirit’s survivability, and Luke was more than satisfied. “The twelve-hour cooldown is a bit steep, but for a guaranteed life-saving skill, it’s a cheap price to pay.”

“Mana, come here. Let’s test this Magic Cylinder.”

Pulling Dark Magician Girl over, Luke’s eyes gleamed with high expectations. This experiment would finally confirm his lingering theory.

“Understood, Master.” Though Mana tilted her head in slight confusion, she obediently followed his instructions, taking the purplish-red card and pressing it gently against her heart.

Just like her previous fusion with the Magic Spellbook, the Magic Cylinder sank into Dark Magician Girl’s chest without the slightest hint of resistance. A split second later, an intense, suffocating aura erupted from her slender frame, whipping her blonde hair wildly through the air.

[Dark Magician Girl – Mana successfully fused with Magic Spellbook and Magic Cylinder. Quality increased to Perfect-grade!]

I knew it!

Hearing the system prompt chime in his mind, Luke couldn’t stop himself from clenching his fists in triumph.

After listening to Mana’s feedback earlier, he had strongly suspected that integrating specific lore-accurate cards like the Magic Spellbook harbored hidden evolutionary effects. That exact theory was what drove him to forge the Magic Cylinder immediately.

Yet, even Luke hadn’t dared to hope that fusing both the Magic Spellbook and the Magic Cylinder would force Mana’s innate quality to shatter its ceiling and rank up!

Prior to this, Dark Magician Girl’s quality was already at the absolute peak of her previous tier. Now, after this advancement, she had officially stepped into the Perfect-grade, meaning her latent potential and raw output had been thoroughly unchained.

[Dark Magician Girl]

Race: Spellcaster

Quality: Perfect-grade

Level: Six-Star

Equipment: Magic Spellbook, Magic Cylinder

Skills: Dark Magic Inheritance, Dark Magic, Silence Spell, Dark Burning Attack

Looking at Dark Magician Girl’s updated status panel, Luke noted that while her level remained at Six-Star, her quality column now proudly displayed ‘Perfect-grade’.

While the immediate stat inflation wasn’t quite as exaggerated as a direct level-up, the sheer combat power multiplier provided by a quality increase was devastating in its own right. If they were to cross paths with that Storm Cloud Sparrow right now, Luke was entirely confident that Dark Magician Girl would swat it out of the sky without breaking a sweat.

“I wonder… if I continue to forge and integrate her specific Equip and Counter Cards, can Dark Magician Girl break through to the Epic or Legendary grades?” Luke muttered, his mind already racing with future deck builds.

For the vast majority of Magic Cards, reaching the Perfect-grade was a hard, impossible bottleneck.

While there were four supreme qualities sitting above Perfect—Epic, Legendary, Mythical, and Divine—those realms were simply unattainable for ordinary creations. To forge a Magic Card of Epic quality or higher, the underlying worldview of the card’s origin had to be astronomically grand. The worldview was the foundational bedrock that dictated a Spirit’s absolute strength limit and growth potential. Naturally, the intricacies of the card art and the rarity of the physical materials used also played a massive role in the final result.

Right now, Dark Magician Girl had proven she could forcefully elevate her own quality simply by integrating her signature cards. This meant that Luke possessed a far richer, more versatile method of upgrading his Spirits compared to the rigid, traditional methods used by this world’s Magic Card Masters. It also guaranteed that his core cards would never become obsolete as he climbed the ranks.

More, Dark Magician Girl’s rapid evolution was a glaring proof of the sheer depth and terrifying scale of the Yu-Gi-Oh! worldview. As his mental power grew, forging native Epic, Legendary, or even Divine-grade Magic Cards was no longer just a pipe dream—it was an absolute certainty.