Chapter 3081: Soul Craft, Creation Array

Date: Unspecified

Time: Unspecified

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

No matter what rock someone was living under, they had probably heard of the VR-Slime Card and the VR-Universe. These two innovations had only been around for a short time, yet both had already become daily necessities for Card Apprentices across the Five Regions, making their creator a household name.

Every genius Card Creationist in the Card World had heard of their creator. They had read about his work, studied his creations, and, whether they liked it or not, been compared to the young prodigy, Dalton V. Wyatt.

Demigod Dyke was no exception.

As the number-one Mythical Card Creationist in the Five Regions, he had spent years building his reputation. His clients had once been grateful simply to get a card created by him. Now, some of those same clients had started demanding more.

’Why can’t you make something like Dalton V. Wyatt?’

’Can’t you create a low card with universal functions like the VR-Slime Card?’

’What about something comparable to the VR-Universe?’

Even if Dyke didn’t care about the comparisons, he couldn’t escape them. He heard Wyatt’s name dozens of times a day. And at least once a day, someone inevitably compares the two of them to his face. The Grimoire Network was even worse.

Almost every day, another debate would erupt comparing the old master to the young prodigy. Some argued that Dyke’s decades of experience and mastery still made him superior. Others claimed Wyatt had already surpassed him despite his age and realm. Some simply wanted to watch two generations of Card Creationists clash.

The debates never reached a definitive conclusion. No matter how many comparisons people made, they always ended up in the same place: if Dalton V. Wyatt could create something as revolutionary as the VR-Slime Card while still being a mortal, what would he be capable of after becoming a Card Demigod?

That question had quietly settled the argument for many. Almost everyone had reached the same conclusion without saying it aloud. Demigod Dyke was no match for the creator of the VR-Slime Card. Dyke had learned to ignore most of it. And, much to his own annoyance, Dyke agreed with them.

But hearing Wyatt casually dismiss his own innovation while challenging him to a Card Creation duel was another matter entirely. The young man wasn’t merely confident, he out right disregard the one hailed as the number-one Mythical Card Creationist of the Five Regions to his face. It hurt Dyke’s pride and made him mad. However, he was mad at himself for not being able to argue it despite his long career. He felt like he had lived a life waste.

Nonetheless he couldn’t be mad at himself for long after all in terms of innovation nothing he ever created comes close to the VR-Slime card. He believed that because he had personally used the VR-Slime Card.

He had enjoyed its soul-energy digestion ability from time to time, and he had entered the VR-Universe to explore its indigenous life forms, civilizations, power systems, cultures, and customs.

That was where he had discovered Soul Crafting. Most Card Creationists assumed Soul Crafting was simply an imitation of the Card Creation page found in their Grimoires.

Dyke saw something entirely different. To him, Soul Crafting wasn’t an imitation. It might be the essence. He believed the creation arrays on their Grimoire’s Card Creation page were merely a simplified manifestation of the principles behind Soul Crafting.

That realization changed everything.

Soul Crafting was difficult and demanding unlike conventional Card Creation. Yet once Dyke accepted his theory, he became obsessed with learning it.

He studied Soul Crafting inside the VR-Universe and practiced what he learned in the real world, gradually incorporating its principles into his own Card Creation techniques.

The results were astonishing. His Card Creation abilities improved by leaps and bounds. And that progress gave him a conviction he hadn’t possessed before and he successfully created unranked cards in the VR-Universe using its exotic ingredients. However, in the card world, because of his realm’s limitation regardless of his mastery over soul crafting he couldn’t take the last step to successfully create a Unranked card.

Not giving into his frustration, Dyke searched for ways to make up for this gap, and the answer he reached was the Unranked grimoire from the myths. He was confident that if he had an Unranked Grimoire, he could use its unranked creation array to successfully create an Unranked Card.

That was precisely why, despite recognizing that the False Ruler’s proposed duel sounded almost too good to be true, Dyke couldn’t help but feel tempted.

But if he had been the sort of man who surrendered to every impulse, he would never have earned the title of the number-one Card Creationist in the Five Regions.

His discipline and conviction aside, he had survived this long by knowing when to take a risk and, more importantly, when not to.

"Your Highness, before we discuss the duel any further, could you tell me how I can earn merits and how many I would need to redeem an Unranked Grimoire?" Dyke’s tone had changed considerably.

The subtle arrogance and confidence he had for his craft earlier were gone, replaced by politeness and a measure of humility. He was finally standing face-to-face with the man whose name he had spent months hearing and whose work he had studied from afar.

And seeing the person himself had forced Dyke to confront a reality he had previously been able to ignore.

This wasn’t some talented young Card Creationist he could casually dismiss. This was the creator of the VR-Slime Card and the VR-Universe, a man who had established his own empire despite being surrounded by the existing powers of the Five Regions.

Dyke was smart enough to recognize when he was standing before someone he shouldn’t underestimate. To question why risk everything on a duel? If he lost, he could end up serving as a prisoner of the New Empire for who knew how long.

If he simply worked for the Empire, however, he could earn merits through his greatest strength, Card Creation, and eventually redeem the Unranked Grimoire without gambling his freedom.

The choice wasn’t difficult. He would work like a horse if that’s what it took. At the end of that road waited the one thing he wanted more than his pride, an Unranked Grimoire.

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