Anime Magic Card Era

Chapter 178: Chapter 177: You’re Asking for It, Mana. First, Eliminate a Batch!

Circuit Link. This was the special ability a Card Master could only obtain upon ascending to the Monarch Realm. However vast the distance a card spirit ranged from its master, so long as the Card Master linked to the corresponding spirit’s circuit, the two could communicate without the slightest delay. A Card Master could even direct an entire battle remotely through their card spirit’s eyes, truly commanding from behind the lines and deciding victories from a thousand miles away.

And a step above that stood Source Sync, which only King Realm Card Masters could wield. At its heart, it was simply the upgraded version of the Monarch Realm’s Circuit Link, except that by that stage, it encompassed far more than mere communication.

Several seconds later, Dark Magician Girl’s figure swelled from distant to near, and in a blink she had returned to Luke’s side.

"Exactly as I guessed." Taking the Trial Crystal Dark Magician Girl handed back, Luke wore the look of a theory confirmed.

"Master, what guess?" Dark Magician Girl blinked at him, entirely lost.

"At the start, I assumed the Trial Crystal couldn’t be moved at all, given that the stronghold had already been generated." Seeing her expression, Luke reached out and gave her cheek a pinch, explaining over her indignant protests. "But after watching what you did, I realized my earlier guess was wrong, and a different possibility occurred to me instead."

As he spoke, Luke gave the Trial Crystal in his hand a shake. The points within still read one hundred fourteen. "Killing mimic fierce beasts earns points. But just now, for the whole stretch you carried the Trial Crystal beyond the stronghold’s range, the crystal gained neither the hourly bonus point nor any of the corresponding kill points."

"In other words, once the Trial Crystal is carried away from the stronghold, it stops gaining points entirely. But neither does the point total ever drop."

"And there’s one more thing. The whole time you carried the crystal out of the stronghold, I sensed no abnormality whatsoever." At that, Luke’s smile turned positively radiant. It meant this iteration of the Trial Road held a great deal more room for creative operation than anyone suspected.

"Master, do you have any idea how sleazy that smile of yours looks right now?" Watching him, Dark Magician Girl doused him with a splash of cold water.

"Girl, are you asking for it?" The smile cut off mid-bloom, and Luke’s hand shot out to thoroughly muss Dark Magician Girl’s little face, earning him a furious struggle that accomplished absolutely nothing.

A long moment later, having finally vented his fill, Luke released her, and in a flash Dark Magician Girl blinked far out of reach, watching him with wary eyes while pitifully rubbing her pinched-red cheeks.

Luke paid the girl no further mind, linking instead to Sistermon Ciel’s circuit. "Ciel, how do things look on your end?"

Seeing this, Guilmon very tactfully refrained from disturbing Luke, trotting over to Dark Magician Girl’s side instead, where the two little cuties struck up an exchange all their own.

"I’ve already located ten trial strongholds, and marked every one of them." Mid-sprint, Sistermon Ciel didn’t so much as break stride, as though the sudden arrival of Luke’s voice inside her mind came as no surprise at all, nor did it disturb her movements in the least.

"Only this much time has passed, and you’ve found ten strongholds already?" Luke had believed in Ciel’s capability, but he hadn’t expected her to move this fast. "Your efficiency is remarkable. It seems entrusting this operation to you was exactly the right call."

A faintly self-satisfied smile rose on the advancing Ciel’s pretty face. Luke’s praise had plainly put her in an excellent mood.

But the smile soon faded, and through the effect of the Circuit Link, Sistermon Ciel asked, "Tamer, is there a new task you need me for?"

Luke wasted no words, laying out the results of the test he’d just run.

"So, Tamer, you wish for me to go and carry these Trial Crystals back?" In an instant, Sistermon Ciel understood exactly why Luke had contacted her.

Luke’s intent was not for her to raise a hand against the participating students themselves, but purely to seize the Trial Crystals from their strongholds.

So long as a Trial Crystal remained within its stronghold, whether by the passage of set time or by the slaying of deployed mimic beasts, its points would steadily grow. But carried away from the stronghold, the crystal’s point growth stopped dead.

And that was far from the whole of it.

If he gathered the other new students’ Trial Crystals and set them within his own stronghold, then it very possibly meant his own point gain would double, or multiply several times over.

The point remained untested, but Luke held a certain measure of confidence in it. The rules had never explicitly stated that a Trial Crystal could only accrue points within its original stronghold, just as they’d never stated the crystals couldn’t be moved. It simply hadn’t been spelled out, and so it had become a blind spot.

Besides, even if the crystals he seized turned out unable to grow points, the new students who lost their Trial Crystals would likewise lose all ability to earn points. Even if they cleared away every mimic beast deployed at them afterward, it would count for nothing at all.

They’d even forfeit the one hundred points that formed their base. When all was said and done, some of them might genuinely complete their enrollment report with nothing whatsoever to their name.

"Are you confident?" Luke had originally arranged for Sistermon Ciel’s external scouting precisely so he could cull a portion of the participants further down the line. Making the move now merely meant executing the plan ahead of schedule, and it changed little for him.

What was more, as time wore on, more and more new students were bound to discover this same loophole, and when that happened, the competition would only turn more frenzied. However absolute Luke’s confidence in a head-on contest, there was no reason to go inviting hardship.

"I am!" Several seconds later, Sistermon Ciel’s steady reply sounded in Luke’s mind, without a trace of hesitation in it.

"Then move. I’ll be watching your situation the whole way, and if it becomes necessary, I’ll perform the X-evolution and the Hyper Evolution." In her normal state, Sistermon Ciel held only Five-Star strength, but she carried the Awakening skill innately, enough to grant her Six-Star strength in an instant.

And if even that couldn’t resolve an enemy, then Luke could also perform a Card Slash remotely, putting Sistermon Ciel through Hyper Evolution and X-evolution alike, her combat strength climbing yet another rung.

The Hyper Evolution especially. One of Sistermon Ciel’s Ultimate-stage forms was none other than Eosmon! An Ultimate-stage Eosmon possessed the ability of high-speed flight, and that single point alone was enough to leave the overwhelming majority of pursuers eating dust.

Beyond that, an Ultimate-stage Eosmon could even use mirrors to fashion illusory copies to bewilder its enemies. Spending an ability like that merely on escape would already count as overkill.

To say nothing of the fact that Eosmon’s offensive power was likewise nothing to dismiss. Even matched against enemies of its own level, it could hold the upper hand with room to spare.

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