NOVPUBAs Lanci stepped into the giant Door of Nothingness with his usual stride, he once again felt immersed in an endless darkness.
He could see nothing, even the sound of his own heartbeat disappeared. It was a feeling familiar to him.
But when the surroundings lit up once more, it would no longer be the academy he was used to seeing.
Gradually, a faint light, like the dawn seen by a sailor lost in the night, entered Lanci’s field of vision.
With the appearance of the silvery-white glow, a string of text, akin to shooting stars in the sky, came rushing forward—
[Welcome to the registration exam venue of the Cardmaker’s Association, the artificially created simulated Shadow World.]
[Currently, it’s the preparatory phase. The official examination will begin after the preparatory phase ends.]
[Remaining preparation time: 29 mins, 50 secs.]
[Before and during the examination, you may make payments and purchase the necessary materials at any time. Within 5 minutes of purchase, the materials will be transported to the candidate’s artificially created Shadow World.]
[Materials purchased that are of Purple Rareness level and above can only be used for crafting exam cards and cannot be taken out of the Artificial Shadow World examination venue. Unused materials will be repossessed by the Association, and 80% of the cost will be refunded to the candidate.]
[If materials are successfully crafted into Magic Cards during the exam, a proportion of the material costs will be refunded as an award, the proportions are as follows: White Ordinary 10%, Blue Preciousness 20%, Purple Rareness 30%, Pink Holy 40%, Orange Epic 50%.]
[Ownership of the finished magic cards and their patents belong to the candidate. The Southern Continent Card Maker Association only possesses display rights.]
[Candidates must craft no less than third-order magic cards. If the card’s rank exceeds third-order, it will result in a slight score increase, but if the card’s rank is lower than the candidate’s rank, there will be a minor score reduction.]
[After leaving the Artificial Shadow World exam venue, your registration exam results and evaluations will be automatically calculated.]
[…]
[The above information can be reviewed and consulted at any time during the exam.]
[Have you finished reading and agreed to enter the exam environment?]
[Continue/Quit]
Lanci reviewed the information quickly.
As someone familiar with law, he knew that each rule had its reasons.
For example, refunding only 80% of the unused materials’ cost is not solely because the Association is avaricious, but also a means of preventing exceedingly wealthy candidates from thoughtlessly stockpiling scarce resources at the beginning of the exam, which could prevent other candidates who need them from buying these materials.
The restriction against taking materials out of the exam venue stops people from buying high-level materials to inflate prices.
Moreover, Lanci felt the score adjustments for producing higher-rank cards were fair. If a fourth or fifth-order Cardmaker were to participate in the registration exam, making a third-order card would result in a deduction of points. However, if they produced a fourth or fifth-order card, they’d receive additional points.
For third-order Cardmakers like Lanci participating in the exam, they can only craft cards of the third order, so there won’t be any additional score adjustments.
As Lanci touched the [Continue] option, ripples emanated from the silvery-white screen and swiftly spread until they disappeared.
The surroundings suddenly lit up, and Lanci found himself standing in a standard Cardmaking Workshop.
The [Candidate Operating Panel] in front of him now included functionalities like [Scene Selection] and [Material Purchasing].
During preparation time, candidates aren’t allowed to start card crafting and can only undertake relevant preparatory work.
Thus, Lanci nonchalantly began to select his scene.
The selection of environments ranged from indoors to outdoors, spanning all styles and essentially encompassing every single map recorded in the Artificial Shadow World.
Quickly, Lanci chose a spacious room styled after a principal’s office.
Only in such a space did he feel most at ease and efficient.
Next, Lanci began to select materials.
On the browsing panel, he could see all the stock and detailed information from the Ichrite Cardmaker Association Branch.
Some essential materials were already included in the exam registration cost and the Association would provide five sets of basic Magic Card crafting materials, which would be delivered to the candidate’s Single Shadow World at the start of the exam.
These basic materials represent five chances, and additional materials cannot be purchased.
Candidates were able to purchase any other materials based on their card crafting needs.
Lanci adjusted the material filters to [Seal], [Spirit], [Light] and [Healing], then browsed through the available stock and descriptions.
[Curse Marked Magic Circle: Blue Preciousness Tool; necessary for minor sealing magic or creature magic; £12.]
[Mysterious Gem: White Ordinary item; can be used as a medium for sealing power; £1.]
[Holy Seal: Purple Rareness item; produced by the Church, engraved with Divine Arts, it can suppress evil side creatures; £65.]
[Holy Water: Purple Rareness item; a consumable with a strong recovery effect, it can also be used as a throwing item against undead, or as a blending agent in item making; £20.]
[Healing Magic Flower: White Ordinary item; can be ground into medicinal powder, or blend with Magic Ink; £0.5.]
[Feather of Light: Purple Rareness item; comes from a light fairy, can be used as a medium for casting powerful light magic; £115.]
[...]
After opening an item, you can see its detailed condition as well as a detailed introduction, rating, and recommended usage method.
Although Lanci would seal due to the success rate, if he wanted to make high-quality cards with high scores, he still had to refer to the current stock of the sub-branch of the Ichrite Card Making Association based on high-rare materials available.
It might be necessary to integrate other categories on top of the Seal System, turning it into a composite magic type.
Lanci quickly added some essential consumables for making magic cards of the Sealing System to the list, these were almost without hesitation.
Only when he saw some materials of other magic types midway, Lanci needed to think a little about whether or not to make it an alternative when he may make high-quality magic cards today.
Even though he had a half-hour preparation time, he almost finished shopping in less than ten minutes.
Lanci’s strategy was to make White Ordinary in his weakest equipment card, and make Blue Preciousness or Purple Rareness in his strengths, the Call Card and the Spell Card. 𝒏𝙤𝒗𝙥𝒖𝒃.𝙘𝙤𝒎
In this way, as long as he could make the card successful, he would at least be anchored to the Copper Level, and even if one of the two purple and one white cards is extraordinarily rated, he might be anchored to the Silver Level.
Just like that, when Lanci had quickly browsed through these four types of materials in the filtered inventory.
He was looking at the interface being swiftly scanned in a conveyor belt style, suddenly it scrolled back on a certain page.
Lanci’s hand slowed down and slowly stopped.
He saw a very special Pink Holy Level material [Unnamed Light Elemental Stone].
According to the assessment of the Cardmaker’s Association, there are currently no plans to catalyze it. According to the traditional method of using elemental stones directly, it may only bring out the effect at the Purple Rareness level.
Even so, just this one alone costs a whopping 1250 pounds.
Lanci was originally not thinking about such expensive single materials.
But as he looked more closely at the shape of this Elemental Stone, the more he frowned.
He has seen this kind of spherical structure in scientific magazines in his previous life.
This doesn’t seem to be a stone from the earth, but a solid body condensed from a solar nebula, formed after the effects of accretion and long years!
In other words, it is actually a meteorite...
Lanci stood in front of the screen selecting materials, his chin propped up in thought.
Hyperion didn’t take a penny of the last 650 pounds bonus, giving it all to him.
And before Lanci left the Nanwantina Border, the roughly 1000 pounds on his hands, he has given quite a bit to Talia and still needs to continue paying her.
All this means is, if he buys this material and successfully makes a Magic Card with it, there may still be some bonus as remaining money.
But if he fails, he would become poor all at once, might even have to seek some assistance from home before earning money in the next Shadow World.
If possible, he still would not ask for money from home for a short time.
Lanci knew that the butler Hans definitely wanted to see the show, but temporarily didn’t let Lanci’s father Noe know that Lanci had already passed the examination to the Sage Academy in the distant foreign country.
Lanci himself didn’t mind, he was planning to make a name for himself in Capital City Ekrite, make a surprise for his father after making a big move, it’s best to wait until he returns from a big score in the Northern Continent.
Since his father Noe had invested in him, Lanci would definitely meet Noe’s expectations!
After thinking it over.
Lanci made a decision.
He removed most of the originally optional Purple Rareness quality materials, bought the Elemental Stone, and re-selected other matching materials for it.
Just like that, time ticks by.
Finally, the announcement of the official exam start!
