Card Apprentice Daily Log

Chapter 3051: Calling 2nd Assembly

Date: Unspecified

Time: Unspecified

Location: Myriad Realms, Card World, Five Regions, Southern Region, Blossom District, Sky Blossom City

“Lil’ Baem and Maworm, stay here and make sure this mess is cleaned up. The rest of you, join me in the TSR Tower meeting hall,” I ordered, ignoring Lil’ Baem’s indignant hisses, which seemed to say, ‘You’re not the boss of me.’

In response, I sneered back smugly. ‘I’m your mother’s boss.’

As if to prove my point, Corey immediately ordered Lil’ Baem to do exactly as I had said. She seemed to have realized that she could no longer afford to indulge Lil’ Baem’s every whim.

Yes, Lil’ Baem had suffered for nearly a millennium under Belphegor and Agony. But if Corey continued letting everything slide, Lil’ Baem would eventually grow into a spoiled brat who would one day get herself killed.

Corey loved Lil’ Baem too much to let that happen. It was time to stop being the fun friend and start being a responsible parent.

“Peyote, stay behind and watch over the city.”

After taking one last look at everyone, I headed to the TSR Tower’s meeting hall, summoning every available member of the New Empire’s leadership for our second assembly since our establishment. Before departing for the Dark Realm to confront Maestro Matteo, there were still several arrangements I needed to make.

A battle against a Cultist Ruler-class was never something that ended quickly. Depending on the circumstances, it could last days, weeks, or even longer, especially if Maestro Matteo arrived with other Ruler-class allies.

That meant I would be absent from the New Empire for an extended period. With the Dark Realm’s time dilation, the situation became even more complicated. One day in the Dark Realm was equivalent to roughly twenty days in the Card World. If the battle dragged on, I could be gone for months in Card World time. Perhaps even a year or more.

It was the worst possible time for me to disappear. The New Empire had only just been established. Its foundations were still fresh, its systems still taking shape, and countless factions inside and outside our borders were watching for the slightest sign of weakness.

Unfortunately, I had little choice. Fighting Maestro Matteo in the Card World simply wasn’t an option. The reserves of Faith he had accumulated over countless years were far too terrifying. If he unleashed them without restraint, even the Card Celestial would struggle to contain the devastation.

Thankfully, the Cultists weren’t indiscriminate destroyers. They were more like farmers. They cultivated realms over long periods, nurturing civilizations and harvesting Faith from living believers. Destroying a realm outright would only destroy the very source of their power, making it an act that went against their creed.

The Demon and Devil Merchants, on the other hand, were more like miners. They extracted every valuable resource a realm had to offer before stripping away its Realm Will and leaving the realm to collapse once nothing of value remained.

That fundamental difference in ideology was one of the main reasons Maestro had agreed to arrange our meeting in the Dark Realm instead of barging into the Card World and demanding that Peyote hand over his disciple. A battle in the Dark Realm was far less costly to him than one in the Card World.

I meant it literally, going against their creed would cost Maestro more than facing our schemes and trap in the Dark Realm. In a way, our interests aligned. Neither of us wanted the Card World caught in the crossfire.

Regardless of the reason, the fact remained that I would be leaving the New Empire for an indeterminate period. Before I departed, I had to ensure my people could withstand whatever schemes the Masters and the Royal Families threw at them. Fortunately, raw strength wasn’t our concern.

As of now Field Marshal Lorn was the strongest Card Demigod alive. True, she wasn’t an all-rounder. She was a specialist, a one-trick pony in the eyes of many, a Martial Sage blessed with an unparalleled bloodline. But sometimes a single perfected strength outweighed a dozen mediocre ones.

Now, she also possessed a Frosling Corpse Puppet Card Spirit. That alone had elevated her to an entirely different level. Even if I took several of my strongest Bloodkins into the Dark Realm to face Maestro Matteo, Lorn alone would be enough to serve as the New Empire’s shield against any direct assault.

Nor was she the only trump card I was leaving behind. Several other Card Apprentices had also been entrusted with Card Spirits. Individually, they might not rival Lorn, but together they formed a force capable of holding the front lines against almost any enemy.

With them leading the defense, it would be nearly impossible for the combined forces of the Masters and the Royal Families to inflict any meaningful harm upon my people through conventional warfare.

And if circumstances took an unexpected turn, there was still the army of peak Cavalry-class and Semi-Noble-class Frosling Devils stationed within Freedom City. They were eager to prove both their loyalty and their worth. If even that proved insufficient, I still had my final contingency. Nearly a thousand Semi-Ruler-class Half-Blood Devils.

Although most of them were still recovering from years of imprisonment and experimentation, their potential alone was enough to make any force think twice before provoking the New Empire. From a military standpoint, I had little to worry about.

Even with my prolonged absence and several of my strongest Bloodkins accompanying me into the Dark Realm, the New Empire possessed more than enough strength to defend itself.

What truly concerned me wasn’t overwhelming force. It was people like the Southern Princess, the Masters, the old monsters lurking behind the Royal Families. None of them had survived this long by relying solely on strength. They had become masters of manipulating events from the shadows, achieving their objectives without ever exposing themselves. Those were the kinds of enemies that were hardest to guard against.

Honestly, I had no clear answer to this weakness in the New Empire. Schemes couldn’t be countered by strength alone, nor could I simply train my people to see through every conspiracy the way one trained them for battle.

Experience was the only true teacher. And that came with time. Unfortunately, time was the one thing we didn’t have. That was precisely why I had called this assembly. During my absence, I intended to grant every member of the New Empire’s leadership access to the Hive Spirit through specially prepared VR Slime Cards.

The Hive Spirit had already proven its value countless times. It could gather information, relay reports in real time, coordinate distant battlefields, analyze developing situations, and connect my people into a single, unified command network.

Individually, they might overlook details. Together, guided by the Hive Spirit, they could compensate for one another’s blind spots.

That wasn’t the only arrangement I intended to make, but it was undoubtedly the most important. If my absence truly lasted months, or even years in Card World time, the New Empire couldn’t continue depending on my personal presence to function. It had to learn to govern itself, to fight, to adapt, to survive.

Only then could it become a genuine empire instead of an organization revolving around a single individual. This period would be the greatest test the New Empire had faced since its founding.

If my people could weather it with the Hive Spirit’s assistance, then one day I would be able to venture beyond the Card World into the Myriad Realms without constantly worrying about what was happening back home.