Card Apprentice Daily Log

Chapter 3080: The Number One Mythical Card Creationist Of Five Regions

Date: Unspecified

Time: Unspecified

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

Listening to my proposal and catching Lorn’s reaction, Dyke’s gray brows drew together as he studied me more carefully. He had clearly realized there was more to my offer than a simple choice between earning an Unranked Grimoire and fighting for one. His gaze hardened, asking the most important question, “What happens if I lose?”

I chuckled and pointed toward the Sinners’ Tower, whose imposing structure housed what was practically a small army of Card Demigod sinners. “You’ll serve the New Empire and its citizens until you’ve completed your sentence for your crimes.”

Dyke’s expression twitched. I smiled adding, “Since I like you, I’ll give you a little advice. If you lose to Lorn, you’ll receive the minimum sentence available. But if you lose to me, you’ll receive the maximum sentence there is.”

I let the silence linger for a moment. “So choose wisely.”

Lorn glanced at me from the side, already understanding exactly what I was doing. I wasn’t threatening Dyke. I was giving him information. Unfortunately for the old man, it was information that made his choice considerably more complicated.

Demigod Dyke nodded in understanding, but his eyes continued darting across Sky Blossom City. He couldn’t help it.

The moment he arrived, he had sensed the terrifying soul-energy signatures scattered throughout the city. Card Demigod after Card Demigod, their auras hidden or restrained but still impossible for someone of his level to completely ignore.

Then there was the Cloud Turtle he had passed on his way in. Dyke’s gaze lingered on the enormous creature for a moment. He couldn’t identify its exact realm. That alone was enough to make his instincts scream. A part of him was almost certain the creature was an Unranked monster, or at the very least something so unusual that it had no business being casually stationed inside a city.

When he first heard about the Unranked Grimoires, Dyke had rushed over almost impulsively. He had treated the newly established New Empire, this self-proclaimed sovereign state carved out of the Five Regions, almost like a joke. Nothing he couldn’t afford to investigate personally.

Then he arrived. The sight of its “guard dogs” had poured an entire bucket of cold water over his enthusiasm. He had come expecting to kick down the door. Instead, he was beginning to wonder whether the door had been designed to eat people. The offer made by the one labeled as the False Ruler by five regions was certainly tempting.

An Unranked Grimoire was something even he couldn’t casually dismiss. But Dyke wasn’t foolish enough to underestimate a young man who had somehow seized control of the New Empire and carved out a territory for himself in the middle of the Five Regions.

More importantly, he wasn’t a Card Fighter. His strength lay in Card Creation. Challenging Lyra Lorn, one of the ten strongest Card Apprentices in the Five Regions, on her own turf was already reckless. Doing so while surrounded by an army of terrifying Card Demigods and monsters of unknown rank was simply suicidal.

As for challenging the False Ruler himself? Dyke wasn’t arrogant enough to assume that a young man capable of building a force like this had nothing to back up his confidence.

For the first time since arriving, Dyke wondered whether rushing over the moment he heard about the Unranked Grimoires had been a mistake. Perhaps the old saying was right. When the bait looked too good to be true, sometimes the fisherman wasn’t the one holding the hook.

Demigod Dyke shook his head before putting forward a counterproposal to the False Ruler. “Your Majesty, you and I are both world-renowned Card Creationists. Instead of fighting like a couple of barbarians, how about we compete with our card-creation skills?”

He was the number-one Mythical Card Creationist in the Five Regions. Why would he challenge someone on their home turf at something he wasn’t particularly skilled at? That would be foolish. Instead, he would challenge me in the one field where he was confident he could dominate: a Card Creation duel.

“Fine. But I’m short on time. So instead of a regular Card Creation duel, how about we each summon five of the strongest cards we’ve created in our life time?” I agreed, then casually added a taunt. “After all, we can’t compete based on innovation. My VR-Slime Cards would win on every count. That would be unfair to you.”

Dyke’s gray brows twitched at the taunt. He couldn’t understand why I would propose terms that seemed to put me at an obvious disadvantage. Especially after sensing my mixed yet stable baleful aura.

The more he thought about it, the more convinced he became that there had to be a trap hidden somewhere in my proposal.

My aura suggested that my prowess had been elevated through borrowed strength, meaning my actual realm was likely far below that of a Card Demigod. If that was true, then the cards I had created should, at best, barely reach SSS rank, unless I had some extraordinary method of compensating for the limitations of my lack of realm.

Dyke, meanwhile, was the number-one Card Creationist in the Five Regions. Over the course of his long career, he had created numerous powerful SSS-rank cards. That made my proposed terms suspiciously convenient. Yet Dyke was still tempted. There was one thing he wanted more than anything else: to create an Unranked Card.

To accomplish that, he needed either an Unranked Grimoire or a way to break through the ceiling of the Card World itself. And if even geniuses like Lyra Lorn had failed to break that ceiling, Dyke’s hope of creating an Unranked Card rested almost entirely on obtaining an Unranked Grimoire.

That was why, the moment he heard the rumors about them, he had recklessly rushed to the New Empire, abandoning everything he had been doing without a second thought. Now, the opportunity was standing directly in front of him. Suspicious or not, it was difficult to walk away from a chance like this.