Chapter 227

"Maybe I should try materializing the round Kuriboh first...?"

Rowan glanced at the creature on his shoulder and muttered the thought aloud, then asked for its opinion with a look. The little guy was only Level 1, so even paying in Emotion Points, around 1000 should be more than enough.

The round little head bobbed up and down at once in agreement.

"Hum!!"

Seeing that, Rowan raised his right hand, and a red Dragon's Wing mark lit up on it once more. Under Camula's curious gaze, at Rowan's signal, a stream of red Crimson Dragon power flew from his hand and landed on the floating, ghostly form of the round Kuriboh. The little brown, ball-shaped monster began to solidify rapidly, and in a blink it had fully become flesh and fur.

"So this is the power of the god's mark he just got?" Camula said, her face full of shock.

He had only sent out a bit of energy, and a Duel Spirit had materialized outright. The Shadow Charms of the Seven Stars could only manifest a target while the charm was attached to it, and they came with limits on strength, too. They could only materialize Duel Spirits that weren't particularly powerful. Clearly, this devious brat's god mark was far stronger than those few, rare Shadow Charms!

Even Ishizu, the Gravekeeper's Assailant, who rarely showed herself, couldn't help appearing beside Rowan, staring at the scene in surprise.

"Since I've already materialized the little guy, I might as well do one more," Rowan said, noticing her and deciding to fully materialize the Gravekeeper's Assailant as well. He raised his wrist and muttered. She could already manage a half-materialized state in the real world, but she was clearly still a long way from true materialization. If she had to rely on her own strength, heaven knew how many years it would take.

"Hum!!"

At Rowan's signal, another stream of red energy flew from the Dragon's Wing mark on his wrist and landed on the Gravekeeper's Assailant. In an instant, her black-clad figure, that of a female assassin, became fully solid. She finally looked the way she had when Rowan saw her in the Gravekeepers' world of Duel Spirits: tan, sun-warmed skin and green agate earrings.

"Ahem. Would you like to try something from the real world, Ishizu?"

Seeing the Assailant still staring at her own hands in amazement, Rowan coughed to get her attention and lifted the teacup in his hand.

"No... but thank you so much. From now on, I'll keep protecting you from the shadows."

Ishizu was startled, and then she smiled and thanked him. In the next moment she turned back into a shadow, vanishing with practiced ease and merging into his own.

Rowan went blank. Because in that split second, he felt as if the Gravekeeper big sister had kissed him on the cheek...

Was it an illusion? He turned to the round Kuriboh for confirmation, but it only blinked its eyes and shook its head, saying it hadn't noticed anything. Off to the side, Camula began to wonder whether she should tell that little blonde girl, Alexis, that her "territory" was under attack...

After a moment of confusion, Rowan decided not to dwell on it. Even if he really had been kissed by the Gravekeeper's Assailant, he'd only come out the tiniest bit behind! As the saying goes, taking a loss is a blessing in disguise. He wouldn't even mind taking a few more losses like that!

With that settled, he turned back to the remaining options in the system shop.

[Deck: Koala Deck (Chumley build)] 500 points. [Deck: Runick Deck (Underworld Banish build)] 1500 points. [Deck: D.D. Dynamite Deck (Underworld Burn build)] 1500 points.

Now that he had redeemed the Mark of the Crimson Dragon — Dragon's Wing, only these three Underworld deck options were left.

Rowan had little interest in the Chumley build of the Koala Deck. It did contain Des Koala, a key card practically essential to any Underworld Life Point draining deck, but it was clearly not worth 500 points.

His eyes settled mainly on the other two, the genuinely Underworld decks.

The Runick Deck worked by pairing Field Spells with various Quick-Play Spells to banish huge numbers of cards from the top of the opponent's deck, an Underworld banish style that aimed at deck destruction.

The D.D. Dynamite Deck combined all sorts of Underworld Traps with monster effects, dealing double the pain through deck destruction and Life Point erosion. Even among Underworld decks, it was one of the most soul-crushing.

The former was almost entirely made up of Quick-Play Spells and had hardly any monsters. The latter ran on Traps, but its monster count wasn't small either. By comparison, the latter was clearly harder to counter.

With that in mind, Rowan made up his mind at once! He redeemed the D.D. Dynamite Deck from the system without hesitation.

And after the redemption, his Emotion Points, once a fortune of a full eleven thousand, had dropped in the blink of an eye to just 2500...