This time, the magic barrier around the card-crafting workshop even shut Boss Cat out.
Yet it seemed to quite enjoy watching Lanqi craft cards now, squatting once more just outside the workshop and peering quietly inside.
"Just a peek, just one peek, meow."
Boss Cat found that listening to Lanqi blow up cards was actually quite therapeutic, and it was even more curious about what kind of card he might make if one didn't explode.
Earlier, having overheard Tata chatting with Hyperion, it had realized it had greatly underestimated this boy!
Who would have thought he was a genius holding a registered Gold-rank card maker license from the Southern Continent Card Makers Association?
It was hard to imagine that a Gold-rank card maker, right before its eyes, could blow up dozens of cards in a row without producing a single finished product—to the point where Boss Cat wondered whether the lad was deliberately researching how to make the explosions more powerful.
Lanqi glanced at the little black cat at the doorway, feeling that a cat dropping by to hang out every now and then suited him well; he was experiencing the joy of casual cat ownership.
Lanqi soon looked away from Boss Cat, refocusing his attention on what lay before him.
All the equipment in the dormitory's card-crafting workshop had been replaced with the highest-spec models provided by the Southern Continent Card Makers Association's Ikerite branch. Vice President Lawrence, who had proctored his exam back then, had arranged them for him, delivering them alongside Lanqi's temporary Gold-rank card maker license pending his Platinum-rank review.
First, Lanqi placed a dark purple, stone Rubik's-cube-like item embedded with a recording program onto a cabinet at the far edge of the workshop.
This item could record the entire card-crafting process to verify the maker of a magic card. According to the Card Makers Association's requirements for patent applications and rank advancements, if a card was crafted without official witnesses, a record of the process of producing a high-grade magic card was of paramount importance.
Vice President Lawrence had told Lanqi that during the upcoming review, some senior executives at the Association headquarters hostile toward the Hutton Kingdom or Duke Mikhail might try to pick faults, questioning Lanqi's competence and consistency. Just in case, whenever Lanqi had the opportunity to craft a high-grade magic card, he had to record it to serve as leverage and secure his standing in the final review council.
Although the intricate details of the crafting steps and the finished card's attributes could be concealed afterward, under this device's recording and certification, the final card's quality and tier were impossible to fake.
After clearing ample space on the workbench, Lanqi took three compartmentalized trays from the three-tiered cart beside him, laden with various materials, and double-checked the ratios he had prepared well in advance.
Placing them beside the workbench, he drew upon the skills he had honed day and night over the past six months. With the Poet of Great Love assisting him, he performed the final processing of the materials with a calm gaze and practiced deftness.
To craft this sealing card centered around the core material [Wolf King's Proud Heart], purchasing the auxiliary materials alone had virtually drained all of Lanqi's savings—including what he had put aside previously, the bounty on the Saintess of Destruction, and his share of Professor Borao's compensation.
And that was even after Vice President Lawrence had done everything in his power to drive down the material costs and quickly imported several high-rarity sealing-type auxiliary ingredients from branches in other nations.
Simply performing the final processing of the materials before use was a step that would make an ordinary card maker's hands shake.
Yet even Talia had praised Lanqi for possessing an innate nerve of steel, without a shred of nervousness even when walking a tightrope.
This was a state that the vast majority of card makers could never attain even after a lifetime of cultivation.
For Lanqi, however, it was simply how he naturally did everything.
Just like that.
The clock in the living room ticked along.
Before they knew it, dozens of minutes had slipped by.
"Poet of Great Love, ready to begin?"
Lanqi set down the final processed material, ready for use at any moment, and spoke to the Poet of Great Love, who was blending magic ink beside him.
To wield Demon Magic Script in a human body without backlash, the Poet of Great Love was indispensable as an intermediary. Having such an assistant and collaborator was also the foundation of Lanqi's confidence in crafting high-grade magic.
Her innate comprehension of magic engineering seemed inherited from the magic artificer who had left behind the [Hymn of Compassion] in ancient times, as if she were that very artificer's incarnation.
Furthermore, among the spell structures left within the Poet of Great Love by the [Hymn of Compassion], there were parts that even Talia had failed to comprehend when using the relic to craft cards back then. These allowed for forcibly locking onto targets by race, gender, and true name, involving an intricate blend of curses and seals. With Lanqi's current grasp of sealing arts, he could not fathom them in the slightest either; he could only marvel at how terrifying that ancient magic artificer's mastery of the arcane had been.
The Poet of Great Love's expression cooled as well, her golden pupils devoid of emotion.
"Just start on your own. I will assist you."
The Poet of Great Love did not merely look a bit more serious—she was mimicking Talia to perfection, seeking to make Lanqi feel as though a stern overseer stood beside him, helping him enter the optimal state of immersion.
"Understood."
That familiar, chilly stare instantly piled the pressure onto Lanqi. Without further hesitation, once in the zone, he took the magic ink that the Poet of Great Love had just blended from ground fire-attribute magic crystal powder and seal-specialized magic core fluid.
The moment his fingers touched the test tube, the mana within Lanqi resonated in sync with the ink, as though the fluid she mixed had actively molded itself to his magic.
Even without testing or measuring, Lanqi was certain she had achieved the perfect ratio for him.
Filling his magic pen with the ink and feeling the flow of its mana, he unsealed the [Wolf King's Proud Heart]. As its solid, silver stony layer cracked and dispersed into dust, veins of interwoven teal and purple grew distinct, revealing a heart like a translucent gemstone.
Next came a crucial step in the crafting of a summon card: modifying and enchanting the core material, using it as a cornerstone to instill spell circuit pathways and structures, then expanding and linking them.
The entire process demanded total concentration from every participant, requiring a level of synchronization akin to two bodies sharing a single mind.
As Lanqi's brushstrokes and engraving knife quivered with pinpoint precision, the Poet of Great Love steadily carved the spell runes forged from their combined mana into each precalculated magic circuit. The translated and rewritten hybrid characters of human and Demon Magic Script squirmed and clustered like a dense hive of insects, intricately intertwined.
The two poured their whole hearts and minds into the engraving, as though even if the outside world were turned upside down, it had nothing to do with the space inside this workshop.
Gradually, the concept of time dissolved.
The minute hand on the living room clock circled round after round. At midday, Boss Cat stepped out of Lanqi's home to fetch him lunch and left it on the table, yet there was still no sign that Lanqi inside the workshop was anywhere close to stopping.
Chapter 231