Magic Card Era: Infinite Deck Enhancement — Chapter 67

Chapter 67: Almost Drained, Evolution Stone!

[Holy Light Trident: A top-tier artifact imbued with the flow of light power. It can only unleash its full potential when wielded by someone skilled in using light power.]

‘Transforming a green-grade material shaves off exactly one-tenth of my current mana reserves,’Luke calculated silently, his eyes tracking the faint glow of the reconstructed item fading in his palm.’This means that with my current total capacity, I can only process a maximum of ten green-grade materials in a single sitting before my mana runs completely dry.’

“Although the quantity per batch is a bit small, when accumulated over time, the sheer volume becomes quite substantial,” he muttered to himself.

As he spoke, another raw material materialized in his hand. This time, however, the ambient energy radiating from it was noticeably denser—a blue-grade material.

‘Rewriting and reconstructing green-grade materials requires ten percent of my mana. So, what about blue-grade?’ Driven by curiosity, Luke immediately initiated the Reconstruction process to test his limits.

The very next second, the mana reserves within his body plummeted at a terrifying, violent speed. A wave of intense vertigo washed over him, and Luke couldn’t help but gasp for air as his vision briefly swam.

‘Damn, is this going to suck me completely dry?’

“Master, what’s wrong?”

The bathroom door clicked open, and Mana stepped out, humming a cheerful, lighthearted tune. Her skin still carried a faint, rosy flush from their earlier morning activities, and a soft towel was draped over her damp hair. However, the moment she saw Luke slumped against the headboard—looking entirely hollowed out and exhausted—she dropped the towel and rushed to the edge of the bed, her small face pinched with anxious inquiry.

She hadn’t seen him looking this weak just a few moments ago. On the contrary, she had been the one pushed to her absolute limits, left as a trembling, breathless mess. How had their roles reversed in the blink of an eye?

“It’s nothing serious, just a bit of severe mana overconsumption. Don’t worry too much.” Luke reached out, weakly pinching her soft cheek to comfort her. He offered a tired smile. “Go whip up some breakfast. I’m starving.”

Between carefully crafting Magic Cards, testing the heavy toll of his new Reconstruction ability, and thoroughly “feeding” his little glutton of an elf right at the crack of dawn, Luke felt like his stamina had hit rock bottom. Not even Superman could keep up with this kind of relentless schedule.

The test results were clear. While rewriting a green-grade material only took a tenth of his reserves, the mana consumption for a blue-grade material increased exponentially, instantly vaporizing nearly four-fifths of his total mana pool.

Such high-intensity drainage in a matter of seconds had left him in this extremely awkward, weakened state. However, the reckless experiment had successfully mapped out the current absolute limit of his Reconstruction ability.

If he ever wanted to rewrite and reconstruct purple-grade materials or higher, he wouldn’t even be able to attempt it until he advanced to a higher realm and vastly expanded his total mana capacity. Otherwise, even if the system drained every last drop of his life force, the process would simply fail to complete.

“Then I’ll go prepare it right now.” Hearing his reassurance, Mana nodded her small head, her worries slightly eased. She leaned in to give him a quick peck before flying off toward the kitchen. Soon enough, the rich, delicious aroma of sizzling food wafted out into the bedroom.

“Although the consumption rate is a bit astonishing, being able to rewrite and reconstruct blue-grade materials significantly increases my tactical operability.”

After resting against the pillows for a few minutes, Luke finally felt the vertigo fade. His mana was slowly regenerating, though he had absolutely no immediate plans to continue reconstructing materials today.

Sitting up properly, Luke opened his personal terminal and logged directly into the Magic Card Association’s official trading network. Although he possessed the cheat-like authority to rewrite and upgrade materials himself, that didn’t mean he had to stubbornly ignore the open market. Combining his system’s abilities with direct purchasing would undoubtedly be the fastest, most efficient way to stockpile the resources he needed.

“Hmm?” While scrolling through the endless catalog of listings, Luke’s gaze locked onto a very peculiar item.

[Evolution Stone: A stone containing strange energy, seemingly possessing the special effect of stimulating a Magic Card’s deeper potential.]

It was only a blue-grade material—not particularly high in quality by elite standards—but its description was incredibly striking. Of course, the price tag attached to it was equally eye-catching.

Normally, the market value for a blue-grade material fell within a very predictable, moderate range. However, after doing a quick calculation, Luke found that the selling price of this Evolution Stone was almost comparable to that of genuine purple-grade materials. The absurd markup immediately piqued his interest.

Opening a new tab, Luke quickly searched the Association’s database for detailed information regarding the Evolution Stone. It didn’t take long for him to understand exactly why a mere blue-grade rock could command such an exorbitant price.

After a Magic Card was successfully produced, its power was fundamentally capped. Its star rating and initial quality grade were the absolute indicators of its ceiling. Not all Magic Card Spirits possessed special, rule-breaking skills like the Red-Eyes Black Meteor Dragon, which could elevate to a higher tier of combat power even after death.

Unless a Magic Card was entirely re-structured through a rare Reconstruction process, the Magic Card Spirit’s power could never be further enhanced.

The Evolution Stone bypassed this limitation. It carried the unique effect of stimulating a Magic Card’s dormant potential. Whether it was added as a catalyst during the initial production phase or integrated later during Reconstruction, it granted the finished Magic Card a chance to permanently increase its level and quality.

Although the probability of triggering this effect was notoriously low, even a mere one percent chance was more than enough to drive ambitious Magic Card Masters completely insane. Therefore, the premium placed on Evolution Stones was arguably the highest among all materials in the market, yet the supply could never even come close to meeting the overwhelming demand.

“No wonder the selling price is so absurd.” After grasping the unique properties of the stone, Luke’s mind began to race. He instantly realized that this Evolution Stone was practically tailor-made for his Digimon deck. It perfectly mirrored the core biological characteristics of Digimon evolution.

The so-called “evolution” in the digital world was actually the physical process of a Digimon’s growth and data development. During evolution, a Digimon’s power would be exponentially strengthened, transforming them into a vastly more powerful existence.

Generally, a Digimon would slowly absorb ambient data and evolve through a natural, time-consuming process. But with the help of special external tools—like a Digivice—that evolution process could be forcefully accelerated. The integration of an Evolution Stone would serve as the perfect anchor to ensure that this accelerated evolution was realized smoothly within the rules of this world’s Magic Card system.

“By using the Evolution Stone’s effect to stimulate the card’s deeper potential, and combining it with the data-channeling ability of a Digivice… perhaps I can achieve the exact effect I’m looking for.” Vaguely, Luke felt he had just locked onto the perfect developmental direction for his deck.

Without hesitation, he clicked to purchase. However, he only managed to secure a single Evolution Stone before the page refreshed, displaying a massive, red ‘Sold Out’ banner across the listing.

“They’re really popular, huh,” Luke couldn’t help but complain, shaking his head at the sheer speed of the buyout. The other buyers were hovering over the market like starving vultures. But this minor setback only reinforced his understanding of the stone’s true value. “Whatever. As long as I have enough time, I won’t lack Evolution Stones, and the same goes for any other material.”

A few minutes later, the soft chime of a delivery drone echoed from his window. An Evolution Stone, etched with strange, glowing geometric patterns, had been delivered via the Association’s express transport.

“It’s quite heavy.” Luke tossed the stone lightly in his palm, surprised by its dense, metallic weight.

He walked over to his desk and placed the Evolution Stone directly into the scanning tray of his Magic Card Editor. Although he now had a physical reference to work with, his current mana reserves were far too depleted to afford another massive drain from rewriting and reconstructing it.

Leaning back in his chair, Luke began to theorize. “Digimon 2.0 involves network evolution. A single Digimon doesn’t just have a linear path; they can have several branching evolution routes depending on the data they absorb.”

He tapped his fingers rhythmically against the desk. “If I want to flexibly use this characteristic in real combat, I would theoretically need to input every single possible Digimon evolution path into the Digivice itself. The sheer volume of high-grade materials required to store that much data would probably reach an unmatched, terrifying level. The amount of groundwork involved… tsk tsk.”

Inputting all the evolution paths into the Digivice, using the device to artificially expand the Digimon’s data volume, and continuously enhancing their power through mid-battle evolution—this was the absolute top priority for his Digimon Magic Card production. But the workload required to hardcode all that data was equally immense.

“No, wait. Actually, I don’t need to input all the evolution paths into the Digivice itself.”

A sudden flash of inspiration crossed Luke’s mind, and his eyes lit up with predatory excitement.

“The Digivice’s greatest and most fundamental use is simply to infuse data into the Digimon. I don’t need it to store the data. The branching evolution problem can be entirely solved by using a card-swapping format!”