Chapter 37 – The First Card
by spirapiraMo Lan summoned the Book of Cards and looked at the card slot on its cover.
Within the groove, a soft white glow still churned slowly. On the nearly solidified rectangular card, Chinese characters flickered in and out of visibility.
Mo Lan was momentarily stunned when she saw the familiar script.
After a moment’s thought, she understood. The card had coalesced based on her own thoughts and intentions, so it wasn’t surprising that it had taken the form of the writing system she was most familiar with.
She carefully made out the characters on its surface.
{Unnamed 1}
【Race: ***】
【Rank: ***】
【***: ***】
【***: ***】
……
【Developed Cards: 0】
【Cards in Development: 1】
【Stored Energy: *】
【Card-Making History: Unnamed Card 1】
【Card Design: New Available】
【Card Slot: Unnamed Card 1】
—【Estimated Cost: *** Magic Power】
—【Estimated Appearance: None】
—【Estimated Function 1: Guide the development of the Book of Cards.】(Completion: 60%)
—【Estimated Function 2: Guide the enhancement of one’s own abilities.】(Completion: less than 1%)
—【Current Difficulty 1: Card-making energy severely insufficient. Suggest ******】
—【Current Difficulty 2: Ability classification and ranking unclear. Suggest ******】
When she saw the words “card-making energy severely insufficient,” it clicked for Mo Lan.
The energy wasn’t enough yet—that was why the card hadn’t fully taken shape!
Looking at the completion rates, “Estimated Function 1” was decent at 60%, but “Estimated Function 2” was actually “less than 1%.”
In other words, the magic power that had nearly drained her dry earlier had basically done nothing for “Estimated Function 2.”
Should she keep channeling more magic power?
She didn’t even need to think about it—she gave up immediately.
With her current magic power, completing “Estimated Function 2” was essentially impossible.
However, “Estimated Function 1” still had some hope.
For her first time condensing a card, it was better to play it safe.
Rather than pouring in who-knew-how-much more energy, it would be wiser to trim the functions that exceeded her capabilities.
Mo Lan simply deleted “Guide the enhancement of one’s own abilities” from the estimated functions entirely.
The next moment, the information about herself on the card’s surface vanished, leaving only content related to the Book of Cards.
{Unnamed 2}
【Developed Cards: 0】
【Cards in Development: 1】
【Stored Energy: *】
【Card-Making History: Unnamed Card 2, Unnamed Card 1】
【Card Design: New Available】
【Card Slot: Unnamed Card 2】
—【Estimated Cost: *** Magic Power】
—【Estimated Appearance: None】
—【Estimated Function: Guide the development of the Book of Cards.】(Completion: 90%)
—【Current Difficulty 1: Card-making energy slightly insufficient. Suggest replenishing card-making energy, reducing estimated card functions, or setting an upper limit on card functions.】
—【Current Difficulty 2: Magic power quantification and ranking unclear. Suggest supplementing relevant knowledge and refining the magic power ranking system the card needs to display.】
“Looks like I made the right choice!” She was just a tiny bit away from successfully condensing it.
Mo Lan summoned a wisp of magic power and carefully channeled it into the card slot.
The moment her tendril of magic power touched the groove, Mo Lan felt an intense pull. That wisp of magic power became a massive surge, and she lost control again, completely unable to stop it.
Fortunately, after only one second—presumably because the card-making energy was sufficient—the suction vanished.
Otherwise, she might have passed out again.
She would need to be careful from now on and avoid condensing cards that exceeded her capabilities.
The information on the card’s surface had also changed. The function completion rate had risen to 95%, and the only remaining difficulty was “Magic power quantification and ranking unclear.”
Regarding the quantification and ranking of magic power, Mo Lan only knew that the unit of magic power was mana—the highest-grade energy on the continent of Valen, also known as source energy.
The ranking of all extraordinary beings across the entire continent of Valen was based on the amount of magic power they possessed.
Other forms of energy, such as Witch Magic, were also converted into equivalent amounts of magic power for calculation.
Less than 100 mana was Apprentice rank.
100 mana or more, but less than 500 mana, was Beginner rank.
500 mana or more, but less than 1,000 mana, was Intermediate rank.
1,000 mana or more, but less than 5,000 mana, was Advanced rank.
5,000 mana or more, but less than 10,000 mana, was Peak rank.
10,000 mana or above was Beyond Peak.
But this knowledge alone didn’t seem to be quite enough. Mo Lan still didn’t know exactly how much 1 mana of magic power actually was.
It was too late at night, and it wouldn’t be appropriate to bother her senior again.
But Mo Lan was genuinely curious and wanted to figure it out right now. On a sudden impulse, she called out to the empty air: “Headmistress?”
Last night, the Headmistress had been able to detect them making Honey Breadfruit Juice in time, so she could certainly hear her call now.
“Headmistress, are you there? I have an important question I’d like to ask. Could you help me with it?”
……
The dormitory was silent. Just when Mo Lan thought the Headmistress wouldn’t answer, a familiar voice reached her ears.
“In all my years of teaching, you’re the first one to treat a guardian avatar like a teacher to ask questions.”
“Guardian avatar?” Mo Lan keenly caught the key detail.
“I’ll only answer one question for you. Are you sure you want to ask about that?”
“No, no, no!” Mo Lan hurriedly suppressed her curiosity. “I want to know exactly how much 1 mana of magic power is. It determines whether I can successfully use the Book of Cards to condense my first card. Headmistress, you have to help me!”
“Turning resonance paper true red requires 1 mana of magic power, or an equivalent amount of magical force.”
Mo Lan understood immediately. “Thank you, Headmistress! I get it now!”
She looked at the card slot. The function completion rate had finally reached 100%.
The estimated magic power consumption was no longer obscured either.
All it needed was a name, and the card would fully take shape.
This card was meant to assist her in developing the Book of Cards. With a thought from Mo Lan, {Unnamed Card 2} became {Book of Cards}.
The card in the slot had also fully solidified. It was a white card with black text.
{Book of Cards}
【Developed Cards: 1】
【Cards in Development: 0】
【Stored Energy: 0】
【Card-Making History: Book of Cards, Unnamed Card 1】
【Card Design: New Available】
【Card Slot: Empty】
Mo Lan removed the card from the slot.
It really was an extremely simple card, with black Song-style characters printed on the front.
Everything else was blank—no patterns, no decorations whatsoever.
It looked pretty much like a piece of white cardstock with a few words printed on it by a computer.
Though it did feel a bit sturdier to the touch.
It was really too crude.
She would definitely need to put some thought into the card’s appearance, or else the cards would look far too ugly.
Thanks to Earth’s planetary memories, Mo Lan had countless design patterns and art styles to draw from.
Ten minutes later, she had sketched out a design draft.
Then she placed {Book of Cards} back into the card slot, preparing to put it back in the forge for a redesign.
【Card Slot: Book of Cards】
—{Book of Cards}
—【Estimated Cost: 1,149/1,200 Mana Magic Power】
—【Estimated Appearance: Appearance Template 1】
—【Estimated Function: Guide the development of the Book of Cards.】(Completion: 100%)
……
After replenishing a bit more magic power, the card took its final form.