Chapter 114: Lances Steady Style

Chapter 114: Lance's Steady Style

As Lance stepped through the massive Void Gate with his characteristic calmness, he once again felt himself plunged into an endless darkness. He could see nothing, and even the sound of his own heartbeat had vanished, but this was all a familiar sensation.

He knew that when the light returned to his surroundings, it would not be in a place he knew. Gradually, a faint glimmer, like the dawn glimpsed by a mariner lost in the night, appeared.

As a silvery-white radiance emerged, a stream of text rushed toward him, streaking across his eyes like meteors in the night sky.

[Welcome to the examination venue for the registered card maker exam, an artificially created Shadow Realm simulation.]

[You are currently in the preparation phase. The official exam will begin once this period concludes.]

[Remaining preparation time: 29 minutes and 50 seconds.]

[You may purchase necessary materials at any time before or during the exam. Purchased materials will be delivered to your location within this artificial Shadow Realm within five minutes.]

[Materials that are Purple Rare or higher grade may only be used to make exam cards and cannot be removed from the venue. Unused materials will be reclaimed by the Association, with 80% of the cost refunded to the candidate.]

[If materials are successfully crafted into enchanted cards during the exam, a portion of the material cost will be refunded as a bonus. Refund rates are: White Common 10%, Blue Uncommon 20%, Purple Rare 30%, Pink Divine 40%, and Orange Epic 50%.]

[Ownership of the finished enchanted cards and their patents belongs to the candidate; The Southern Continent Card Maker's Association retains only the right of display.]

[Candidates must craft cards of at least Tier 3. Cards exceeding Tier 3 will receive a slight score bonus, while cards of a tier lower than the candidate's own rank will incur a slight score penalty.]

[Upon leaving the artificial Shadow Realm venue, your exam results and final assessment will be automatically calculated.]

[The above information remains accessible for review at any time during the exam.]

[Have you read the information and do you agree to enter the examination environment?]

[Continue/Exit]

Lance quickly finished reading through the information. Familiar with the law, he understood that every regulation had its underlying rationale. For instance, the policy of refunding only 80% of the cost for unused materials wasn't simply a case of the Association being greedy. It was designed to prevent excessively wealthy candidates from recklessly hoarding scarce materials at the start of the exam, thereby depriving other candidates of the chance to purchase what they needed.

Similarly, the ban on removing unused materials from the exam venue was intended to stop profiteers from using the exam as a means to acquire high-end materials for resale at inflated prices.

Lance also found the scoring rules for cards to be quite fair. If a Rank 4 or Rank 5 card maker took the registration exam but only produced a Tier 3 card, they would face a penalty, whereas producing a Tier 4 or Tier 5 card would earn them bonus points. Candidates like Lance, who were taking the exam at Rank 3, were restricted to crafting Tier 3 cards and were not subject to these specific scoring adjustments.

As his fingertip touched the Continue button, ripples spread across the silvery-white light screen, expanding rapidly before vanishing from sight. His surroundings suddenly brightened, and Lance found himself standing inside a standard card making workshop.

The Candidate Control Panel before him now displayed a variety of new functions, such as Select Scenario and Procure Materials. During the preparation phase, candidates could not begin making cards. They were limited to the necessary preparatory tasks.

Thus, Lance calmly began selecting a scenario. The available environments ranged from indoor to outdoor settings and covered a wide array of styles, essentially encompassing every map recorded within the artificial Shadow Realm system.

He quickly selected a spacious room styled like a headmaster's office. It was the setting where he felt most at ease and where his productivity was highest. Next, Lance proceeded to select his materials. The browsing panel displayed the current inventory of the Association branch, along with detailed specifications for each item.

Certain essential materials were included in the exam registration fee. The Association provided five sets of basic crafting consumables, which would be delivered to the candidate's private Shadow Realm instance the moment the exam officially began. These basic materials represented five attempts and could not be supplemented by additional purchases.

All other materials could be freely selected based on the candidate's specific requirements. Lance adjusted the item filter categories to Sealing, Mental, Light, and Healing, then browsed through the inventory and descriptions.

[Spell Sealing Ring: ] Blue Uncommon Item. Required for casting minor sealing spells or creature-based magic. 12.]

[Mystic Gem: White Common Item. Can serve as a medium for sealing power. 1.]

[Holy Seal: Purple Rare Item. Produced by the Church of the Goddess of Fate. This seal is inscribed with divine magic and can suppress evil entities. 65.]

[Holy Water: Purple Rare Item. A consumable with potent restorative effects. Can also be used as a projectile against the undead or as an ingredient in crafting. 20.]

[Healing Magic Flower: White Common Item. Can be ground into medicinal powder or used to mix magical ink. 0.5.]

[Feather of Light: Purple Rare Item. Originates from a Light Fairy. Can serve as a medium for casting powerful light-based magic. 115.]

Upon opening an entry, he could view details regarding its condition, a comprehensive description, its rating, and recommended usage. Although Lance intended to focus on the Sealing category, given his higher success rate, crafting a higher grade card required consulting the branch's current inventory and basing his choices on the available materials. It might even be necessary to blend other categories with the Sealing attribute to create a composite enchanted card.

Lance quickly added the essential consumables for Sealing type enchanted cards to his list. These choices required almost no hesitation. He only paused to consider, and perhaps select as backups, materials for other magic types, weighing them against the higher quality cards he might craft that day.

Despite having a thirty-minute preparation window, he had nearly finished his selections in under ten minutes. Lance's strategy was to secure a White Common card for his equipment card submission, which was his weakest area, while aiming for Blue Uncommon or Purple Rare cards for his summon and spell card submissions, where he was more proficient.

This way, provided the attempts succeeded, he would at least qualify for Copper Certification. If one of the Purples among a set of two Purples and one White received an exceptional individual rating, he might even reach Silver Certification.

He was rapidly browsing through the filtered inventory of these four categories when he suddenly stopped and scrolled back to a page he had just breezed past. Lance's movements slowed, then came to a complete halt.

He had spotted a unique, Pink Divine material: Unnamed Light Elemental Stone. The Card Maker's Association's assessment indicated no known method for catalytic processing. Using it via traditional elemental stone methods would likely yield only a Purple card.

Even so, the price for this single item was a staggering 1,250 pounds. Initially, Lance hadn't intended to consider such an expensive individual material. However, as he scrutinized the stone's appearance, his frown became deeper. He recognized this specific granular structure from scientific journals in his past life.

It didn't look like a terrestrial stone. Rather, its surface resembled a solid formed from the condensation of a solar nebula, shaped over eons by processes like accretion! In other words, it was actually a meteorite from space.

Lance stood before the holographic display of materials, resting his chin in his hand as he pondered. Hyperion hadn't taken a single penny of the 650 pound prize money from last time. She had given it all to him.

As for the roughly thousand pounds in assets he had when he had left South Vantina, he had already given a significant portion to Talia and would continue to make payments to her in the future.

In other words, if he purchased these materials and successfully crafted an enchanted card, he would have some money left over as profit. If he failed, however, he would instantly be reduced to poverty. He might even have to ask his family for financial support before earning more money in the next Shadow Realm challenge.

Ideally, he didn't want to ask his family for money again so soon. Lance knew that the butler, Hans, was likely eager to see some entertainment, so he hadn't yet informed his father, Noel, who was far away in a foreign land, that he had been admitted to the Sages' College.

Lance himself didn't mind the butler's antics. He actually planned to make a name for himself and really show what he was capable of in the capital before surprising his father. Ideally this would happen after he returned from his major undertaking in the Northern Continent. Since Noel had invested in him, he was determined to live up to those expectations!

After giving it some thought, Lance made his decision. He removed most of the alternative Purple materials he had previously selected, purchased the elemental stone, and chose a new set of complementary materials to go with it.

Time ticked away. Finally, the signal announcing the start of the official exam rang out!