Magic Card Era: Infinite Deck Enhancement — Chapter 39

Chapter 39: A Public Display of Affection

[Brilliant Butterfly Robe: Every Queen Butterfly undergoes a transformation once in its life. The butterfly robe shed after this metamorphosis condenses a fraction of the Queen Butterfly’s innate power. If used properly, it can command lesser butterfly demons on a small scale for combat.]

“So beautiful!” Mana’s eyes sparkled as she stared at the ethereal, shimmering fabric of the Brilliant Butterfly Robe. The iridescent scales caught the ambient light of the forest, casting a soft, captivating glow. Yet, despite her clear fascination, the blonde girl quickly forced herself to look away.

She knew the reality of their situation. While a material of this caliber might be considered pocket change to an advanced Magic Card Master, it was an incredibly precious resource for Luke, who was only just beginning his journey.

Still, her gaze kept wandering back to the glowing silk. It was obvious that the Brilliant Butterfly Robe held an immense, magnetic appeal for her. In truth, very few girls could possibly resist the sheer magnificence of such a garment.

“If we ever get the chance to cross paths with another Queen Butterfly, I’ll have the Brilliant Butterfly Robe tailored into a dress and give it to you,” Luke said, unable to suppress a fond smile. He reached out, playfully tapping the tip of her nose as he took in her adorably restrained expression.

With his system’s simulated construction environment and enough time, his card creation success rate was an absolute one hundred percent. Under normal circumstances, he only needed a single Brilliant Butterfly Robe to forge a brand-new Magic Card. Any duplicate materials he gathered could easily be repurposed for spoiling his spirits.

“Really?” Dark Magician Girl’s emerald eyes lit up with pure delight. She leaned in close, pressing a soft, lingering kiss to Luke’s cheek. “Master, you’re the best.”

“Alright, let’s keep moving.” Luke touched the warm spot on his cheek where her lips had lingered, his smile widening as he affectionately ruffled her golden hair.

They set off deeper into the woods. Having just stepped foot into the Demon Spirit Home not too long ago, securing such a high-quality material right out of the gate was a fantastic start to their trial.

Meanwhile, in the monitoring room outside the dimensional rift, a heavy, awkward silence hung in the air.

“Ahem,” Cang Fenghua coughed into his fist, breaking the quiet. “Principal Gu, while I understand that a close bond between a Magic Card Master and their Magic Card Spirit significantly enhances their combat synchronization… with the college entrance examinations so close at hand, perhaps someone should remind Luke to exercise a bit more restraint.”

It wasn’t just Cang Fenghua. Chairman Yu, Zhao Chengyuan, and Da Baiman all wore incredibly subtle, strained expressions. Damn it all. They were supposed to be evaluating a brutal, life-and-death survival trial, yet here they were, being force-fed a blinding public display of affection. It was genuinely irritating to watch.

“I’ll have a word with him,” Principal Gu muttered, the corner of his mouth twitching slightly. Personally, he didn’t see the harm in it. Who hadn’t been young, hot-blooded, and romantic once?

Besides, he knew for a fact that Cang Fenghua possessed quite a few beautiful female Magic Card Spirits of his own. Principal Gu highly doubted the esteemed City Lord kept things strictly professional behind closed doors. In fact, he thought this development was excellent. Top-tier talents like Luke needed to be kept happy and anchored for domestic consumption. It would be an absolute tragedy if a genius of his caliber was poached by a rival city just because they offered him better perks.

However, Cang Fenghua was the City Lord, which meant Principal Gu had to give him face in public. How he actually chose to relay that ‘warning’ to Luke later was entirely his own business.

“We finally put this Five-Star beast down.”

In a dark, damp corner of the Demon Spirit Home’s outer perimeter, Wang Ping, Bei Hanyun, and two other students collapsed onto the muddy ground, gasping for air. Not far from their resting spot lay the mangled, bloodied corpse of a Five-Star fierce beast—a Mad Wolf.

After separating from Luke at the entrance, their group had played it safe, steadily hunting weaker beasts along the edges of the zone. Yet, no matter how cautious their approach had been, they were still ambushed by a Five-Star predator.

It had taken a frantic, perfectly coordinated series of attacks from all four of them to finally slay the Mad Wolf, and even then, their Magic Card Spirits had suffered moderate injuries in the clash.

“It’s only the first day. We still have three long days ahead of us,” Wang Ping said, shaking his head as he wiped a streak of grime from his cheek. They were finally experiencing the true, suffocating terror of a Dimensional Plane.

“I wonder how Luke is holding up right now?” Bei Hanyun murmured, staring into the dark treeline. If Luke had agreed to team up with them, this entire trial would likely feel like a relaxed vacation.

“He’s probably doing infinitely better than we are. After all, Dark Magician Girl is a Six-Star Magic Card.” Wang Ping let out a long, heavy sigh. The gap in power between them was simply too vast to bridge.

“Dark Burning Attack!”

Deep within the heart of the Demon Spirit Home, a deafening explosion ripped through the canopy. A blinding sphere of concentrated dark magic detonated, sending shockwaves tearing through the ancient trees.

In front of Dark Magician Girl, a massive Tyrant Ape—a creature whose heavily muscled frame had expanded to a towering height of three meters—crashed hard into the dirt. The earth cracked beneath its sheer weight. Though the beast wasn’t entirely dead yet, its massive chest barely rose, breathing out far more air than it was taking in.

Two days had passed in a flash. Luke had pushed aggressively into the deepest, most dangerous sectors of the Demon Spirit Home. The ruined Tyrant Ape bleeding out before him was already the third Six-Star fierce beast he and Mana had encountered today alone.

“That Tyrant Ape’s strength had firmly reached the Six-Star Collector-grade level. It’s an exceptionally fierce combatant among Six-Star creatures, yet it still wasn’t any match for Dark Magician Girl.” Watching the fallen beast through the surveillance screen, Cang Fenghua slowly shook his head in disbelief. “It seems there is a very high probability that Dark Magician Girl’s quality is genuinely Perfect-grade.”

“Honestly, I can’t even conceptualize a Magic Card within the Six-Star range that could possibly outshine her.”

As a Sovereign Realm Magic Card Master, Cang Fenghua possessed a terrifying arsenal. He commanded not only Six-Star cards, but Seven-Star, Eight-Star, and even world-shaking Nine-Star Magic Cards. Yet, if he were forced to scour his own collection for a Six-Star spirit that could rival Dark Magician Girl in a one-on-one duel, he would come up empty-handed. He had to swallow his pride and admit that his own Six-Star cards—whether measured by raw destructive output or tactical utility—fell short of Luke’s creation. For a Sovereign Realm master, that realization was more than a little depressing.

Her raw attack power was only a secondary factor. What truly made Dark Magician Girl a nightmare on the battlefield was her diverse, highly complex array of skills. The fluid, flexible way she chained her spells together allowed her to output the coordinated pressure of two or three separate Magic Card Spirits all on her own.

“I’m even more curious now to see if there are any beasts left in this entire Demon Spirit Home capable of forcing Luke to summon a second Magic Card,” Chairman Yu said, leaning forward in his chair. Over the past two days, his evaluation of Luke had skyrocketed. “And I’m dying to know if the new Magic Card he created can actually stand on the same level as Dark Magician Girl.”

At the same time, Chairman Yu felt a lingering sense of frustration. Why were the beasts in this trial zone acting so weak? He just wanted a glimpse of Luke’s second card. Why was it so damn difficult to push the boy into a corner?

“If his new Magic Card’s strength matches Dark Magician Girl’s level, then Luke is going to bring us an unmatched wave of surprises during the actual college entrance exams,” Chairman Yu added, earning solemn nods of agreement from the rest of the room.

Generally speaking, the vast majority of candidates sitting for the college entrance exams were still struggling to master low-level Magic Cards. A tiny fraction of true geniuses might break into the intermediate ranks—students like Wang Ping and Bei Hanyun—which gave them a fighting chance at entering the Ancient Kingdom’s top-tier academies.

But a candidate like Luke, who was actively fielding Six-Star Magic Cards? He was basically guaranteed a golden ticket into the four major academies. Now, the only question left on anyone’s mind was just how high Luke could climb on the national ranking boards. For ninety-nine percent of the Eastern Region candidates, crafting a Six-Star card was an impossible pipe dream, but that didn’t mean it was entirely unheard of in the broader world.

“Hm?”

Principal Gu, who had been watching Luke’s feed with relaxed amusement, suddenly sat up straight. The casual smile vanished from his face, replaced by a razor-sharp intensity. “Is that a Carnivorous Hunter?”

Hearing the alarm in Principal Gu’s voice, the other examiners instantly snapped their attention back to the primary monitor.

A sudden, chilling shift had occurred on the battlefield. The Tyrant Ape, despite having its chest caved in by the Dark Burning Attack, was violently twitching. Driven by some unnatural adrenaline, the dying beast began to drag its broken body upward from the crater.

Seeing her prey still moving, Dark Magician Girl raised her staff, her emerald eyes narrowing as she prepared to deliver the final, lethal blow.

But from the shadows behind her, Luke’s voice cut through the damp air, sharp and urgent. “‘Mana, retreat!”

Though she couldn’t immediately sense the hidden danger that had triggered Luke’s command, Dark Magician Girl didn’t hesitate for a fraction of a second. She instantly aborted her spell, kicking off the ground and launching herself backward into the safety of the trees.

Magic Card Spirits possessed absolute, unquestioning loyalty to their Masters. Even if a Magic Card Master ordered their spirit to turn their weapon on themselves and commit suicide, the spirit would execute the command without a single moment of hesitation.