Is Something Wrong with Lanqi's Magic Card?

Bright lights illuminated the card crafting workshop, gleaming off the magical instruments and vessels. The apparatuses exuded an ancient air, as though they had witnessed the rise and glory of countless card makers. By now, Lanqi was staring intently at the workbench. Carefully taking stock of the basic materials, he brought out a partitioned tray and picked out portions of each required ingredient, placing them one by one into the compartments. Watching his selection, Talia frowned almost unconsciously. *What is this guy doing taking so many materials?* While Talia remained puzzled, Lanqi gradually finished his preparations. Having lived in frugal destitution for so long, Talia had almost forgotten that she, too, had once been wealthy. Lanqi rolled up his shirtsleeves, his face full of anticipation, thoroughly ready to try his hand at crafting a magic card. Rather clumsily, he began blending the pre-ground non-elemental magic crystal powder with monster core fluid to concoct the ink, using a measuring instrument to monitor the mana fluctuations during the process. Still unable to synchronize his own mana with the ink mixing, Lanqi had no choice for now but to rely on magical tools for assistance. "..." This was not actually difficult; it was just something books alone could not teach—someone needed to guide him. Talia watched Lanqi's novice fumbling with completely indifferent eyes. However, she had no interest in—and absolutely no reason to—offer guidance to this human youth who possessed zero magical talent. Seeing this much, Talia already knew what card Lanqi wanted to make without needing to watch any further. Lanqi had unrolled the magic scroll intended for transcription, extraction, and inscription. The scroll was none other than the Tier 1 mental spell, [Mental Interference]. Unlike a single-use magic scroll that disintegrated after activation, crafting it into a magic card allowed the spell to be cast repeatedly: [Mental Interference] [Category: Spell Card] [Grade: Blue Precious] [Tier: 1] [Effect: Effective only against enemies within 3 meters, rendering them immobilized for an extremely brief moment. Mana cost and duration depend on the disparity in mental strength between both parties. Cooldown: 120 seconds.] In most cases, a magic card crafted using solely this magic scroll as a foundation would produce more or less the same effect, with only minor variations in crowd-control duration at most. If the card maker possessed exquisite skill, they might even craft a higher [Purple Rare] grade. In that case, the effect would become more potent or gain an additional perk. Of course, even if it was merely a Tier 1 spell, a card of [Blue Precious] grade posed a formidable challenge to a novice card maker. Managing not to blow up the card, or producing a degraded [White Common] version, would already be commendable. Talia could not yet judge what the youth's talent was like, nor what sort of card he would end up making. Yet for a human with genuine talent, starting card crafting now was already far too late. Lanqi's family was clearly well-off. If he had talent, he would have been provided the finest resources to begin learning long ago, rather than fumbling through it on a whim at his age. "Tata, do you know anything about card crafting?" Staring at the scroll in his hands, Lanqi suddenly asked, as if sensing Talia's gaze. To him, having someone to chat with in the workshop seemed rather nice. "..." Talia did not acknowledge him, merely shifting her gaze away with indifference. She had no desire to lie over such trivial matters, nor did she want this human to know things he had no business knowing. Taking the hint, Lanqi gave a faint smile and stopped trying to make conversation. Just as the Card Makers Association viewed him, he might possess decent commercial value as a merchant, but as a card maker, he showed not a shred of worth. Come to think of it, the only ones who believed in him so far were Hans, the butler, and Francine, the maid back at the manor. Musing on this, Lanqi continued pouring the prepared magical ink into the inscription pen. From here on, he could afford no distractions, as he was entering the most critical step of magic card crafting—rewriting and stabilizing the magical structure and circuits. Tier 1 mental magic almost always produced subtle mental interference, and hard crowd-control mental spells typically required close range to activate. Rewriting the effect demanded not only exceptional magical creativity but also repeated experimentation and refinement; the difficulty was far beyond ordinary crafting. Lanqi focused entirely, channeling every ounce of his concentration onto the task before him. As the inscription pen moved slightly in his hand, he slowly infused his mana into each magical circuit. A card's magical structure could not be drawn at whim by just any mage or magic artificer; it was a process where understanding, creation, and spellcasting coexisted. Without outstanding talent and thorough comprehension, even if one could draw something resembling the form, they would never endow it with the power it was meant to hold. Lanqi held his breath, entering what appeared to be his greatest trial. The most troublesome part of the inscription was the ring of fine, dense runes that had to be etched onto the card. Twisted like crawling ants, they were indecipherable to anyone without sufficient keenness of sight, let alone writable. With furrowed brows, he inscribed them slowly. Like a master painter crafting an exquisite masterpiece, every stroke was delicate yet thoroughly steady. This sight made even Talia, sitting off to the side, focus her gaze on Lanqi with a bit more seriousness. Setting aside how low-tier the card was and how inexperienced he was, in that moment, the aura Lanqi exuded did not resemble a green apprentice card maker at all—he looked like a consummate grand artist! Seconds ticked by. *Bang!* A loud explosion shattered the silence. It blew up. Talia: "..." Amidst the faintly drifting smoke, she shook her head almost imperceptibly. As expected, a mediocre dilettante squandering money. Even if she did not fully understand the spell inscription of human runic script, she could tell Lanqi was attempting something utterly bewildering. He seemed unsatisfied with simply crafting [Mental Interference]. Instead, while extracting and inscribing it, he was attempting to rewrite it into a far more complex spell before directly encapsulating and producing it. Just as a beginner ought to learn to walk before running, Lanqi wanted to skip both walking and running right from the start and try flying. Anyone who did such a thing was either an insufferably conceited genius or an overambitious fool. "How did it blow up...?" Dazed, Lanqi stared at the magic card that had detonated like a firecracker in his hands. It seemed everything had happened too suddenly, blasting his card crafting dreams to smithereens. Fortunately, the light barrier inside the workshop shielded him from harm. The very next second, as if remembering something, Lanqi sprinted out of the workshop. "That guy..." Talia murmured with a frown. Even if an employer was in a foul mood after a setback, if he was leaving, he shouldn't just throw a tantrum and abandon her like this. What she hated most of all was anyone casually tossing her aside. Just as Talia prepared to leave the room with a look of displeasure, Lanqi rushed back inside, hurried over to the workbench, and began scribbling notes rapidly with a pen. "You're not leaving?" Talia asked. "Why would I leave? This is just the beginning! I only went out to ask the attendant to bring me a few more things," Lanqi replied matter-of-factly. Far from looking disheartened, his eyes gleamed with passion and anticipation, as if filled with boundless curiosity toward the realm of card crafting. Talia said nothing more and returned to her seat. She had plenty of patience. Earning three pounds a day just by sitting here was not something she disliked. She simply wondered how long it would take before this human gave up after repeated failures. Before long, the attendant brought Lanqi several books and a handful of materials he hadn't previously used. Taking the books, Lanqi immediately began leafing through them with obsessive speed at the long desk. He spent the entire afternoon constantly blowing up cards, recording failure data, and consulting texts to study. ... Two full weeks passed in this manner. Every day, Lanqi and Talia came to the workshop—one blowing up cards, the other watching—staying for nearly the entire day. Yet to this day, Lanqi had not produced a single decent [Mental Interference]. Talia still sat in her chair, gently holding a book with both hands and turning the pages at an unhurried pace, fulfilling her duty to protect her employer. However, she no longer paid much attention to his crafting process, reading human books merely to pass the time. In her view, Lanqi's failures were only natural. Even with high-intensity training regardless of material waste, crafting a Blue Precious card usually required repeated failures for a beginner. Lanqi truly appeared to lack talent. Those who were gifted might have already produced several usable Tier 1 magic cards by now. There were even prodigies who crafted a Blue Precious card on their very first attempt at card crafting. Unlike Lanqi, who had spent half a month producing nothing but scrap. A faint gleam rose at the edge of her vision. Even with her attention on the book, Talia knew that a card explosion would follow shortly. Lanqi had failed at this exact step more times than she could count. However... As the light intensified and eventually subsided, no sound came this time. "..." Talia could not help but shift her gaze slightly from the pages. She saw Lanqi looking intensely focused, like an artisan putting the finishing touches on a masterpiece. The magic card in his hands began radiating a soft, hazy halo. It seemed to be a success; Lanqi let out a sigh of relief. At last, accompanied by a wisp of vapor, a fully finished magic card was born! A gratified smile spread across Lanqi's face as he stared at the card's surface. He appeared thoroughly pleased with the card's quality, unable to resist admiring it a moment longer even as its maker. A brilliant amethyst glow shimmered across the card. Even Talia could not help but turn her head to stare at Lanqi. Self-taught, and his first successful card was a Purple Rare? Most card makers could only hope to craft rare-grade cards by returning to Tier 1 and Tier 2 cards after reaching Tier 4 or Tier 5. Granted, Lanqi had poured an exorbitant amount of time and resources into it, and there were even more preposterous prodigies among the demons. Yet what astonished Talia was that an ordinary human she had bumped into by chance possessed such talent... As expected, even destiny favored mankind. A wave of helplessness washed over her heart for no clear reason. Looking at this scene, she could only feel that in this era blessed by the gods for humans, the restoration of the demon realm seemed like a fleeting illusion, impossibly far out of reach. "Tata, quick, look at my masterpiece!" Lanqi's cheerful voice made Talia lift her downcast eyes slightly. Truthfully, a Tier 1 purple card was hardly anything extraordinary to her. Moreover, compared to the materials Lanqi had wasted, the value of this card could not even cover a fraction of his losses. Even if it was a purple-grade [Mental Interference], it was ultimately just a low-cost mental spell—hardly a necessity, and barely even a versatile card. Compared to ranged classes, melee combatants were far more likely to carry it. Yet just as the thought crossed her mind, Talia appraised the card's effect in Lanqi's hand and finally knitted her brows. Because the effect of this modified spell was: [Basic Etiquette] [Category: Spell Card] [Grade: Purple Rare] [Tier: 1] [Effect: Effective only against enemies within 3 meters, forcing the target to kneel before you. Mana cost depends on the disparity in mental strength between both parties. Cooldown: 120 seconds.] [Note: Sir, please do not look down on people through a crack in the door, and above all, do not get ahead of yourself.] "...?" Didn't cards of this type usually immobilize an enemy for half a second once they closed in? Granted, the effect of Lanqi's card was similar... and perhaps the crowd-control duration was slightly longer than [Mental Interference]. Still... Some things were better left unsaid. "Are you selling this card?" After a moment's thought, Talia finally spoke. This was the first time she had initiated a conversation with Lanqi. With the dozens of pounds she had earned from him so far, purchasing a lowest-tier Purple Rare magic card was well within her means. Of course, that applied only to ordinary cards. Lanqi's original spell card did not exist on the open market, making its price impossible to estimate. Its value had nothing to do with whether it was practical or not. It was simply that under no circumstances could anyone else be allowed to use it. Therefore, it was far better to keep it under her own control! "Ah, no. I'm keeping this one for myself. It's quite a fine lifesaving card, after all." Lanqi looked at Talia with mild surprise, seemingly taken aback by her appreciation, before offering a gentle smile and shaking his head in refusal. Talia: "?" A fine lifesaving card? ...Are you certain this card can save your life? You might not have died in a fight originally. But once you used this card with its built-in massive enrage and taunt effect, all bets were off. ...