“How rare, the young lady from Saint Cecilia is late.”
“And with a transfer student…”
In the Card Age, nobles were a very special class; they possessed talents beyond the reach of ordinary people, capable of imbuing cards with various abilities.
Simply put, for two identical cards, a Card Master with talent would always be stronger than one without.
Therefore, their status was much higher than that of ordinary Card Masters, and even the Federation and the Card Master Association gave them many privileges.
In a society where everyone used cards to collectively resist demonic beasts, they were undoubtedly a group that attracted great attention.
Especially in a place like Golden Iris Academy, where nobles gathered, the more powerful the family behind them, the more attention they attracted.
“Miss Veronica, don’t make such a mistake again next time.”
The kind old professor with burnt yellow hair smiled, Saint Cecilia possessed many Ace Card Masters, making it an undisputed giant in this region.
Heimlia City had received no small amount of protection from it.
“As for you, Ya Xi Aotelilan, your usual credits for this course are all deducted. Go back to your seat.”
Upon hearing this, Ya Xi unconsciously pursed his lips, while Veronica beside him gave him a helpless smile.
Having his usual credits deducted meant he had to get a perfect score on the final closed-book exam.
However, these were minor matters. Before Ya Xi’s transmigration, his advanced mathematics in university failed for two consecutive semesters; even Hermes, the guardian of alchemy and mathematics in Greek mythology, probably couldn't save him.
Compared to the answer he got from Veronica, it was not worth mentioning at all.
The surrounding laughter was not very hidden. It was hard to distinguish between malice and goodwill in student days, but Ya Xi didn't care. He found a quiet place and sat down.
He just wanted to find a way to get start-up capital now—at least three material cards.
The reason Veronica called him “painter” was because his original body possessed remarkably outstanding painting talent, capable of realizing at least seventy percent of the images in his mind through a brush.
The card face is one of the important components of a card; good aesthetics and painting can even make a card exert a few more points of power.
Therefore, some wealthy families would spend a considerable price to invite people to specifically draw card faces for them. The original body was precisely because of this that he was favored by the Saint Cecilia family and adopted.
This class mainly taught how to make cards. Although he had memories of it, Golden Iris Academy taught it more thoroughly and completely, and Ya Xi listened with great interest.
After all, he now had both good stories and craftsmanship; all he lacked was the ingredients on the cutting board.
Card making has four major processes and seven small steps.
These are: determining the True Name, material locking, story filling, wish power extraction, card face drawing, card pattern outlining, and card encapsulation.
Each step is interconnected and indispensable.
The wish power that can be extracted from cards born from the Card Makers' imagination is only that of the current era, meaning the present human yearning for mystery and the unknown.
However, for mythological stories that appeared in human history and were continuously perfected over thousands of years, reaching the pinnacle of holiness and mystery, their wish power is not just from one era of humanity, but accumulated over dozens of eras since their transmission.
It is the crystallization of thought that all humanity is proud of; how can its intensity of wish power be compared to this mere few hundred years of the Card Age?
Whether in quality or quantity, truly circulated myths and legends hold an absolute advantage.
It’s just that Ya Xi doesn’t have money on hand now, after all, his original body was not yet an official Card Master, and was still in the money-consuming stage.
To be able to afford card materials that cost tens of thousands, he had to find another way to make money.
Becoming an official Card Master does come with a monthly welfare payment of 5,000 federal currency from the Card Master Association, and one can also be entered into city archives. Card Masters with high-quality cards and well-constructed decks will also receive invitations from the Federation or nobles.
The bell for class dismissal rang, and the classroom became noisy again. Ya Xi took out his magic crystal, engraved with his spiritual power, preparing to surf the magic-constructed network.
The nature of the magic crystal almost perfectly replaced his mobile phone from before his transmigration, and it could also serve as a symbol of identity, making it an important derivative of the Card Age.
Soon, he noticed a website called “Golden Iris Alumni Exchange Forum.” Clicking on it, he found that it was indeed officially organized by the Academy, marked with a blue badge.
After a quick scan of the information, most of it was daily card-making experiences shared by current students, as well as discussions about the Academy's ranked Card Masters.
The daily card-making routines, needless to say, were naturally about making mistakes in material combinations, resulting in a mage holding a longsword, or a priest holding a shield. In short, it was a popular segment among official Card Masters.
As for the ranked Card Masters, each academy ranked students of the same grade through mid-term ranking competitions, with the final rankings determined at the end of the semester.
Resisting demonic beasts was the inherent duty of Card Masters. In this environment, competition in Card Master academies was naturally particularly fierce.
Most first-year students, after a semester of competition, would transform into qualified Card Masters.
And students like Veronica, who were already official Card Masters upon enrollment, had already been placed on the ranking list in advance.
She ranked fourteenth among the displayed one hundred first-year students, making her a strong contender for the top spot, the winner of the semester.
Ya Xi clicked on the last section of the forum. Since he was already a student of Golden Iris Academy, he easily passed the identity verification for this section.
Hmm? There's also paid content.
This post was covered by a gray lock, showing only the beginning: “Demon Summoning Card Making Story: Scythe Ghost.”
Below the title, in small red letters, were the words “Officially certified by the Academy” and “White Common Quality.”
It required three thousand federal currency to unlock.
Someone is selling card background stories on the forum?!
Ya Xi’s eyes immediately lit up. He had the same idea this morning, but was hampered by the lack of a platform.
What kind of decent story could a transfer student adopted by a noble have? Even if Ya Xi presented genuine myths from various systems, the price would probably be suppressed to an unacceptable level for him.
But on a forum like this, he could hide the disadvantage of his identity.
Moreover, someone dared to sell a story that could only be used on white-grade cards for three thousand federal currency per person. Ya Xi estimated that any random story he picked from legends would at least be blue-grade rare.
As long as he could get the Academy’s certification, he wouldn’t have to worry about selling his stories.
After all, according to his original body’s memory, a blue-grade card was almost the standard for a Golden Iris Academy graduate, usually serving as the main combat card for ordinary excellent Card Masters.
Gray, white, green, blue—these four qualities represented the entire life journey of a Card Master with some talent. A story for a blue-grade card was bound to be priceless.
Beyond that, it was the battlefield for genius Card Masters.
However, Ya Xi didn't feel much about this; his original body's thoughts stemmed from his class.
But when it came to geniuses, standing beside him were the most imaginative and creative mythological figures of the past few millennia.
In Indian mythology, Brahma’s world is merely his dream; the Norse mythological world is actually built only upon the corpse of the primordial giant Ymir.
The infallible divine weapon Gungnir and the causality-manipulating artifact Book of Life and Death are mechanisms within mechanisms.
It can be said that human myths, when placed in the background stories of Card Makers, are almost entirely filled with overpowered stats and broken mechanics.
Who in this world could imagine that such a vast and boundless world, before the creation gods of various myths, was merely as common as a corpse or a dream?
Ya Xi immediately registered as a forum member. Most of the functions for current students were free, which was probably why this forum was so popular.
Then he clicked on the magic crystal's input screen and began to edit his first story.
Although it wasn't his own card, it was his first attempt to complete lost history.
Humans are not born with a sense of mission, but when you realize you are doing something that might be remembered by future generations, that feeling of spiritual excitement is like resonating with the souls of the heroic spirits and gods in your writing.
Human history is also constantly deepened and lengthened through such inheritance.
Greek mythology, Norse mythology, Celtic mythology, Egyptian mythology...
Ya Xi thought for a moment. Although the myths were fragmented, he felt it would be best to choose animistic beliefs to sell.
After all, the upper limits of cards from the various great myths are not low, and the bonds between cards are also easy to establish, so giving them away like this still felt a bit painful.
And Ya Xi couldn’t quite grasp animistic beliefs; they were often influenced by various great myths yet possessed folk characteristics.
They could even appear as mythological figures or as animistic beliefs, simply by changing the narrative direction of the story.
So the core was in Ya Xi’s hands; what he sold was just a bunch of logical text. If the buyer could understand its deeper meaning, they could extract more wish power to improve the card quality.
Then...
Let's choose the maiden who gave her entire life for France.
Sacred fire burned in a mortal body, never doubting her divine destiny until death.
【Jeanne d'Arc, the Maid of Orléans】
【She was born amidst war and despair. In the winter of 1412, the land of France trembled under the iron hooves of England, crowns were tarnished, and peasants wept. Under the oak tree in Domrémy village, a shepherdess knelt in the snow, and the whispers of divine envoys came on the wind. The Archangel commanded her to save her homeland.】
【The villagers thought she was deluded by the devil. How could a maiden's body resist longbows and iron armor? But Jeanne d'Arc won the support of other common people with her piety and actions.】
【In 1429, the city of Orléans was besieged by the English army. Despair spread like a plague. As the routed French army trembled on the thick city walls, a figure in white armor, holding high the fleur-de-lis banner, stepped onto the battlefield. She knew no military tactics, yet she used peasant stick fighting to break through the charge of heavy cavalry; she was uneducated, yet she foretold the ambush by the Loire River; her sword never drew blood, but the enemy troops were terrified at the sight of that banner.】
【This was an unprecedented victory. Orléans was immensely grateful to this maiden, but she still did not stop her journey. She wanted to crown the King, to drive the invaders out of her land. Pleasure and status could not save France. She was the most loyal believer, and it was her duty to end this war.】
【God’s favor seemed to have a time limit. In 1431, Jeanne d'Arc was burned to death on the cross. The raging fire consumed her body, as if it were the manifestation of a divine prophecy in reality.】
Ya Xi paused. He had originally intended to stop there, but he still added another passage that remained vivid in his memory.
【A famous question from the records of Jeanne d'Arc's trial: “Do you believe you are in God’s grace?” At the time, the dogma was that no one could be certain they were in God’s grace. So if she answered affirmatively, she would prove herself a heretic. And if she answered negatively, she would admit her guilt. Jeanne d'Arc replied: “If I am not, may God put me there; and if I am, may God keep me there.”】