Card Apprentice Daily Log

Date- 4 April 2321

Time- 14:07

Location- Southern Region, Blossom District, Unknown Location

“I don’t have time for that,” Jill said and turned her track toward the base.

“Fine, have one of your Golems take me out of the dungeon,” I said, having anticipated that Jill would shoot down my request as soon as she heard it.

“I am sorry, all my golems are busy monitoring the dungeon, and I don’t spare to take you out of the dungeon now, I guess you will have to wait,” Jill did not even pause to come up with an excuse.

“Fine, I will go myself,” I said in annoyance.

“Wyatt, I don’t have time to babysit you. I am swamped with overdue work, I will take you out of the dungeon once I take care of that,” Jill said, hearing the boy declare that he would leave by himself. A card soldier trying to exit an S-rank dungeon now that was a disaster waiting to happen. Jill would not care but her oath made her responsible for the boy’s life down in this dungeon. She would be held accountable even if the boy were to die down here out of his stupidity.

“I too have a lot on my plate, I need to get back to the city before they sign my death certificate for the second time,” I said this as an argument but I was in no hurry to return to the city.

“Y-you… you are doing this on purpose, right? How can you be this petty?” Jill said not buying the boy’s clueless act regarding her oath that made her responsible for his dead life down here.

“How am I at fault here? You do you, I have legs I can get myself out of the dungeon,” I continued to pretend clueless about Jill’s oath. Because she pretended to act clueless about why I wanted to leave the dungeon.

“Oh my god, could you be any more impossible? I said I will take you out of the dungeon once I am done here, did I not?” Jill yelled losing her cool.

“When?” I spoke a single word, not wanting to continue this argument.

“What, when?” Jill asked in confusion.

“When will your work be done here?” I repeated myself with more details.

“I will be done when it is done,” Jill’s voice got softer at the end.

“Now who is being impossible,” I asked Jill as took the dungeon’s fake sky. We were already out of the woods and returned to base. Now I planned to stand true to my words earlier, “You can go back to work. I can get out of the dungeon by myself.”

“Are you being serious right now?” Jill followed the boy to the dungeon’s fake sky but the boy did not stop to hear her out, he continued to head toward the dark hole in the sky.

“Fine, I will give you the blueprint for my invention, the recipe for the dungeon prevention array, and 10% of my profits, how’s that?” Jill finally caved to the boy’s threats, she didn’t want him to leave.

“Make it 25% and I want my share in terms of goods,” Seeing Jill compromise I was a bit surprised but I did not hesitate to put forward my demands. And as a reward for her taking the high road, I decided to settle for 25% of phantom sword wood. Besides, I felt asking for 50% would be unreasonable since Jill did everything and all I had to do was keep quiet about it.

“20% and I will turn your share of phantom sword wood into cards,” Jill bargained.

“Deal,” I agreed because turning 20% of the raw phantom sword wood Jill would harvest here into cards was not an easy feat, and it saved me a lot of hassle.

“I have shared the blueprints of my invention and recipe for dungeon formation array with your grimoire. As for the phantom sword wood cards, I will let you know when I am done. Now your turn,” having come to a compromise Jill immediately followed through on her promise and eagerly asked me to reveal how I was able to figure out what she was up to down here despite my disapproving that artificial soul energy vein creation was not possible.

“Well, I kept my opinion about artificial soul energy vein creation aside and decided to believe everything you said, and then your every action started to make sense, especially when you ordered your golems to plant more phantom sword woods. Though I have zero experience with phantom sword wood arrays, I could see that the array had another purpose than to keep this dungeon hidden, you were using it to act as a good cover to hide your phantom wood plantation from me. How could you be so sloppy? I think you got cocky seeing me panic as the soul energy grew by inches,” I lied, praying that Jill will eat them up and not suspect the authenticity of my words.

To be honest it was my soul pupils that helped me figure out Jill’s game down here. I was preoccupied with the fact that the artificial soul energy vein was impossible but by the time I eliminated all the possibilities I was left with no choice but to give the impossible a shot and assume Jill was right, then surprisingly all pieces fell into place.

“I did get cocky and overplayed my hand at the end, didn’t I? I felt a sense of achievement seeing you gobble up my lies as the truth,” It seems Jill’s ego heard my prayers for her to believe my bullshit.

“Yes, you did,” I just agreed with Jill, and summoning my grimoire I began to go through the recipe of the dungeon prevention array planning to use it as a foundation to understand the blueprints of Jill’s invention. After all, they both were based on the same principle.

“Okay, then I will get back to my work then,” Jill sounded a little reluctant, the only reason she compromised was to spend more time with the boy but he showed no interest in her company and dove right into the documents she shared with his grimoire.

…

Date- 4 April 2321

Time- 15:18

Location- Southern Region, Blossom District, Unknown Location

The dungeon prevention array was way more advanced than I thought, I underestimated its complexity and overestimated my capability as an array master. A few successes had me bloated, and I forgot that despite my achievements in array mastery I was still an array master in training.

I went through the recipe of the dungeon prevention array repeatedly hoping to make sense of it and jotting down where my foundation as array master was weak. So that I can ask Jill later.

But Jill was busy with her back work, she was running around the dungeon to rectify the temporary measure taken by the golems. So I decided to start with the blueprint for the device she invented despite my shortcomings in understanding the recipe for the dungeon prevention array hoping that the blueprint of the device could give me some insight into the array’s recipe. And it did.

Jill’s device was the dumbed-down version of the dungeon prevention array, thanks to that I was able to understand the basic principle the dungeon prevention array was working on, though it did not solve my many other doubts. But I had gained a slight understanding of how the dungeon prevention array worked.

However this only confused me because with what little understanding I had of Jill’s device and the dungeon prevention array, I wondered why Jill did not create an array and instead ended up with a device.

Knowing Jill she must have had her reasons as to why she did not create an array and instead a device? Her device was basically a very low-end version of the array. Would it not have been cheaper and simpler if she had just gone with an array instead of a machine to feel the soul energy vein?

Thinking Jill had good reason for that I decided to move forward but then I saw Jill return to base and could help but approach her with my doubts, “Jill, do you have some time?”

“I can spare a few minutes, what is it?” a twinkle could be seen in Jill’s eyes as she answered the boy.

“I am having trouble understanding these parts of the dungeon prevention array, could you lend me notes on these parts of the array mastery?” I did not ask Jill my doubts, I just asked for recommendations and to borrow some books that would deepen my understanding of the array mastery that would help me understand the dungeon prevention array.

“let me see, these are more intermediate parts in the advanced array mastery. Many advanced array masters have little knowledge of this. I am surprised you made it this far. Let me think, I happen to have just the book that will help you with your doubts,” Saying that Jill summoned her grimoire, shared a document with my grimoire and then added, “If you have doubts don’t hesitate to approach me.”

…