Magic Card Era: Infinite Deck Enhancement — Chapter 4

Chapter 4: Six-Star Collection, Dark Magician Girl

Even with the bitter taste of defeat lingering in their mouths, Zhao Chengyuan and Da Baiman had absolutely nothing left to say. The heavy silence in the observation room spoke volumes.

Putting all other metrics aside, even if the Original Magic Card Luke had just forged turned out to be a mere One-Star construct, it would still be more than enough to utterly crush the Four-Star Magic Cards crafted by Bei Hanyun and Wang Ping. This was no longer a simple contest of raw combat power or energy output. The successful creation of an Original Magic Card meant that the entirely new worldview Luke had carefully constructed from scratch had been officially recognized and validated by the supreme Will of the Magic Card Civilization. It was absolute proof of a terrifying, era-defining talent that far surpassed the boundaries of ordinary genius.

With a brand-new, unmapped worldview firmly in his grasp, as long as Luke proceeded with steady steps, crafting high-level Original Magic Cards was simply a matter of time. The foundation was already laid.

“I never expected this. I truly never saw this coming. This unified examination has actually delivered such an devastating surprise!” Cang Fenghua muttered, his voice trembling with an excitement he made no effort to hide.

Even as a dignified City Lord who had weathered countless storms, Cang Fenghua could hardly suppress the surging emotions making his chest heave at this moment. It had been nearly a thousand grueling years since he first stepped onto the arduous path of a Magic Card Master, and only today had he finally witnessed someone successfully breathe life into an Original Magic Card right before his very eyes.

What made the blood rush to his head even more was the fact that this monstrously talented Magic Card Master hailed directly from Cangling City, the very territory under his personal governance!

“Given the terrifying card-making intuition Luke has just displayed upon the altar, as long as he is nurtured with the right resources, he will absolutely shatter the threshold of the Sovereign Realm within a single century,” Cang Fenghua sighed, his eyes locked onto the distant figure of the young man.

Throughout the long, blood-soaked history of the Magic Card Civilization, there was not a single recorded instance of a Magic Card Master who successfully constructed a new worldview and forged an Original Magic Card ever falling short of the Sovereign Realm. In fact, the historical archives clearly stated that creators of Original Magic Cards found it significantly easier to break through cultivation bottlenecks than ordinary Magic Card Masters. The universe itself seemed to favor their advancement.

It had taken Cang Fenghua a full millennium of bitter struggle to advance to the Sovereign Realm, and even that agonizing pace was considered quite fast among his peers. As for when he might ever touch the elusive Immortal Realm, or if he possessed the qualifications to reach it at all, that was a distant dream the current Cang Fenghua dared not even entertain.

Hearing the City Lord’s evaluation, Zhao Chengyuan and Da Baiman exchanged a long, silent glance. Their own cultivation bases were vastly inferior to Cang Fenghua’s, as they were merely Emperor Realm Magic Card Masters. Yet, even reaching that stage had cost them hundreds of years of blood, sweat, and untold resources. Now, looking at Luke, a freshly awakened novice Magic Card Master who had just received a guaranteed prediction of reaching the Sovereign Realm within a hundred years, the two men felt a deep, suffocating wave of bitterness wash over their hearts.

Naturally, the core of their intense sourness stemmed from the simple fact that Luke was not a student from either of their academies. If he were, they would currently be grinning from ear to ear, their faces wrinkled with absolute joy, looking exactly like the thoroughly smug Principal Gu standing nearby.

Completely unaware of the massive psychological shock his Original Magic Card had just inflicted upon Cang Fenghua and the upper echelon of the city, Luke was currently standing quietly on the platform, his full attention absorbed by the glowing data interface hovering over the physical card in his hand.

[Dark Magician Girl]

Race: Spellcaster

Quality: Collection

Level: Six-Star

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

[Dark Magic Inheritance: Inheriting the supreme mantle of the Dark Magician, this Magic Card can be treated as a Dark Magician on the battlefield. Upon activation, she gains a thirty percent combat power amplification drawn directly from the Dark Magician’s legacy. Duration: thirty minutes. Cooldown: six hours.]

[Dark Magic: Channels pure arcane energy through her staff to launch a devastating, high-speed spell bombardment against enemy units.]

[Silence Spell: Projects a localized field of absolute arcane suppression over a designated area. Enemy units caught within this zone are completely stripped of their ability to launch skill-based attacks.]

[Execution Skill – Dark Burning Attack: Gathers maximum magical output and locks onto a designated target, releasing a catastrophic explosive wave. Deals massive localized damage and instantly destroys any enemy units possessing a lower energy threshold than the Dark Magician Girl.]

‘A Six-Star card at the Collection quality tier! Truly worthy of being a top-tier waifu card!’ With just a single sweeping glance over the luxurious stat lines, Luke felt a rush of deep satisfaction. The Dark Magician Girl he had carefully modified and improved was significantly more lethal than standard variants.

Even among the highly competitive ranks of intermediate Magic Cards, a Six-Star Collection quality Dark Magician Girl would absolutely dominate the top tier of power rankings.

During the intense mental forging process, Luke had deliberately modified her background lore. In his constructed worldview, the Dark Magician Girl had not only inherited the heavy mantle of the Dark Magician but had also cross-trained to learn the specialized suppression techniques of the Silent Magician. This brilliant stroke of lore-weaving had directly manifested as the Dark Magic Inheritance and Silence Spell abilities.

‘With the Dark Magic Inheritance skill active, the Dark Magician Girl’s destructive ceiling is pushed even higher, and the system officially recognizes her as a Dark Magician. Just thinking about using her as a bridge to bring out a Red Dragoon in the future gets my blood pumping,’Luke muttered under his breath, a sharp smirk touching his lips.’Wait, no. Given the base material, it should definitely be a Red Mommy.’

Of course, aside from the terrifying prospect of a female Red Dragoon, his newly established worldview offered a massive array of alternative evolutionary paths. There were countless expansion patches and Fusion materials perfectly suited for the Dark Magician and the Dark Magician Girl waiting to be drawn. The Chaos Ritual, for instance, or the legendary Eye of Timaeus!

As for the Dark Burning Attack, it was her signature finishing move. Packing a brutal conditional execution effect that wiped out weaker enemies instantly, its value on a chaotic battlefield was self-evident. There was nothing more to say about it.

In a single word: devastating.

[Congratulations to the host for successfully creating your first Magic Card. Novice Achievement Package has been distributed successfully.]

The system’s sudden, crisp prompt echoing in his mind left Luke momentarily stunned.

‘There is an achievement package too? Open it.’ Without wasting a single breath, Luke mentally commanded the system to unlock the reward.

[Achievement Package opened successfully. Congratulations to the host for significantly increasing the proficiency of your primary ability, Fantasy Construction. Card construction speed has permanently increased by thirty percent. Mental energy consumption during the forging process has decreased by twenty percent! Hidden effect unlocked: Simulated Construction.]

[Simulated Construction: Allows the host to consume a small amount of mental energy to run a perfect simulation of the Magic Card creation process within the mindscape, continuously adjusting variables to achieve the absolute best outcome before committing physical resources.]

The proficiency of Fantasy Construction had leveled up, the crafting speed had spiked, and the mental drain had plummeted!

This massive upgrade meant that if Luke were to construct another Magic Card of the exact same star level as the Dark Magician Girl right now, the entire process would be nearly a third faster, and he would walk away with far more stamina left in his reserves.

The higher the level of a Magic Card, the exponentially higher the difficulty of its construction, and the longer the agonizing time required to forge it. Constructing a mere Six-Star Magic Card had already drained a considerable amount of his time and focus today. If he were to attempt constructing a Seven-Star, an Eight-Star, or even a legendary Ten-Star Magic Card in the future, the sheer time required would be absolutely terrifying.

Naturally, a large portion of that time was spent carefully inputting the complex details of the worldview, but the total physical time span required to hold the mental image stable was still astonishing. Constructing high-star Magic Cards demanded not only flawless attention to the background lore and material fusion but also strict management of the Magic Card Master’s own physical and mental consumption during the prolonged forging process.

Historically, one of the biggest reasons talented creators failed to construct high-star Magic Cards was simply because the construction time dragged on too long, and their mental recovery rate could not keep pace with the massive energy drain, leading to a catastrophic collapse of the card model.

The passive effects granted by the increase in Fantasy Construction proficiency were equivalent to indirectly supercharging Luke’s success rate for all future high-star creations. Let alone ordinary card construction masters, even the revered card construction grandmasters of the highest echelons would turn green with intense jealousy if they ever learned about the heaven-defying utility of Fantasy Construction.

As for the newly obtained Magic Card Illustrated Handbook feature that had quietly integrated into his system, it provided yet another massive tactical advantage.

In this world, after a summoned Magic Card entity was defeated in brutal combat, it did not truly die. It simply shattered into light and returned to the physical card to slowly regenerate. However, it required a strict cooldown period before it could be summoned to the battlefield again. The higher the quality and level of the Magic Card, the longer this agonizing recovery time took. Some top-tier Magic Cards even required ten days or half a month of dormant recovery before they could see the light of day again.

In the heat of a life-and-death battle where every single second was precious, the Magic Card Illustrated Handbook directly compressed that vital re-summoning cooldown by a staggering fifty percent. It was no exaggeration to call such a passive ability a divine artifact of war.

Glancing up at the massive floating timer above the examination altar, Luke found there was still a sliver of time left before the final bell. Without a second thought, he elegantly flicked his wrist, throwing the freshly minted Magic Card into the empty air before him.

“Come out, Dark Magician Girl.”

What was the point of spending so much time and intense mental effort creating a beautiful Magic Card if he could not admire the final result? Naturally, all that hard work was for this exact moment. Luke’s eyes were filled with a deep, burning anticipation.

The air in front of him suddenly grew heavy with the scent of ozone and sweet, crackling mana. A massive, complex black magic circle violently expanded outward, using the hovering Magic Card as its absolute core. The complex geometric runes spun with dizzying speed, illuminating the dim platform with a soft, enchanting pink and deep blue light.

From the very center of that swirling vortex of arcane energy, a slender, striking figure floated out. Her iconic blue and pink robes fluttered gracefully in the residual magical wind, her blonde hair catching the ambient light as she descended. With a soft, weightless grace, Dark Magician Girl Mana landed perfectly in front of Luke, her presence radiating a potent, magnetic charm that instantly dominated the space around her.