Chapter 40 – Sharing Cards

Mo Lan figured that if someone only used a single card, it wouldn’t require magic or a contract as a medium—it would work just like using a magical object.

The only downside was that for her, it would be a losing deal, since she couldn’t gain any increase to her Magic Power capacity as compensation.

Large-scale production and distribution was definitely out of the question—no amount of Magic Power could sustain that kind of drain—but making two cards for her close friends was still doable.

“Really?” Sylph’s and Vasida’s eyes shone brighter than the noonday sun.

Dazzled by the sparkling gazes of her companions, Mo Lan gritted her teeth and said:

“I’m not sure if the Book of Cards can make cards that guide the development of a Manifested Gift. How about I try designing one and see?”

Her Magic Power had recovered somewhat since last night, and besides, merely designing a card only cost 1 Mana.

“Yes, yes!” Vasida and Sylph nodded eagerly.

When Mo Lan took out a card and began tinkering, the two of them even softened their breathing, afraid of disturbing her.

【Card Design: Unnamed Card 2】

—【Estimated Cost: Infinite Mana】

—【Estimated Appearance: Appearance Template 1】

—【Estimated Function: After binding, can guide a Sorceress in developing her own Manifested Gift.】

“Strange!”

She had merely changed the design from “guide oneself in developing the Book of Cards” to “guide a Sorceress in developing her Manifested Gift,” yet the cost had become immeasurable.

Did she need to set an upper limit?

But Manifested Gifts didn’t have tiers!

Wait—Sorceresses did have tiers.

She modified it again, changing the estimated function to “guide Vasida (Intermediate Sorceress) in developing the Devouring Stomach,” and renamed the card to Devouring Stomach.

This time the Magic Power cost showed a precise number—1,200 Mana, the same as her Book of Cards.

Just as she thought she was making progress, she summoned the Book of Cards, channeled 1 Mana from the purple gemstone into the Slot, and loaded the Devouring Stomach design template. But when she saw the difficulties involved in crafting this card, she knew it was impossible.

【Current Difficulty: Insufficient understanding of the Devouring Stomach. Recommend learning about the Devouring Stomach’s functions and development, or submitting a complete Devouring Stomach sample to compensate for the lack of data.】

Insufficient understanding of the Devouring Stomach was different from insufficient knowledge of magic progression.

She could learn magic on her own to understand magical progression—for a Sorceress with Limitless potential, that wasn’t an impossible feat.

But the Devouring Stomach was a Manifested Gift unique to Vasida. Vasida herself didn’t fully understand it yet, let alone anyone else.

By the time Vasida eventually understood her own Manifested Gift well enough, a guiding card would no longer have any value.

Switching the estimated function to Sylph’s Box of Ten Thousand Seeds yielded the same result.

Mo Lan couldn’t possibly understand another Sorceress’s Manifested Gift before the Sorceress herself did. As for the other solution—providing a complete Devouring Stomach or Box of Ten Thousand Seeds as sample data—that was even more impossible.

A Sorceress’s Manifested Gift was one of a kind. There was no second Devouring Stomach, and no second Box of Ten Thousand Seeds.

The reason she had been able to create the Book of Cards card was probably because the Book of Cards was her own.

Although she herself didn’t fully understand the Book of Cards, the Book of Cards understood itself!

Now it seemed that crafting cards with the Book of Cards required more than just her Magic Power as an energy source—it also required her to possess the corresponding knowledge.

And “possessing the corresponding knowledge” didn’t just mean her own intellectual understanding—it also included the abilities and experiences she personally commanded.

For the Book of Cards card, for instance, the knowledge component had been provided by the Book of Cards itself, which was part of her.

Perhaps in the future, when it came to filling in the knowledge gaps about magic tier progression, she wouldn’t need to research and quantify every minute detail and stage of each type of magic. She might only need to learn each one herself, and the Book of Cards would be able to capture the data.

And if the corresponding knowledge pertained to a physical object—like the Devouring Stomach or the Box of Ten Thousand Seeds—she could even submit a sample to the Book of Cards to fill in the missing data.

“Moira, how’s it going?” Vasida finally couldn’t hold back any longer after watching Mo Lan space out for a while.

“It failed,” Mo Lan said. “I can’t create cards for things that neither I nor the Book of Cards fully understand.”

“It’s fine! We can just take our time figuring things out on our own,” Sylph consoled her. “Every Sorceress goes through this. Your cards are part of your own Manifested Gift—it’s perfectly normal that they can’t easily be used by others.”

“Exactly! Even with Sorceress Magic, you can only share some of a Manifested Gift’s abilities!” Vasida added. “What you can already do is really impressive.”

Mo Lan wasn’t nearly as disappointed as Sylph and Vasida imagined.

While the card designs for the Devouring Stomach and the Box of Ten Thousand Seeds had failed, and it was a shame she couldn’t help her friends, it hadn’t been a total loss. At the very least, she had learned some of the rules governing how the Book of Cards crafted cards.

Besides… it was only the guidance cards for Manifested Gifts that couldn’t be made due to insufficient knowledge.

Mo Lan cleared the Slot, recovered the energy, and reloaded the character card – Apprentice template. She also changed the text on the card face to Witch Script.

Thinking that Vasida and Sylph wouldn’t be as familiar with the cards she made as she was, she added a function description to each card.

Then she channeled 20 Mana from the purple gemstone.

Two character card – Apprentice – Unbound cards appeared in her hands.

“I can’t make cards that guide you in developing your Manifested Gifts, but I can make Character Cards. These two are for you—try binding them!”

Vasida and Sylph took the cards and suddenly realized they could read the text on the card faces.

character card (Unbound)

【Tier: Apprentice】(Can be upgraded to Beginner by spending 100 Mana or an equivalent amount of other energy)

【Function: After binding, displays personal information in real time, including name, Race, tier, Magic Power capacity, and magic proficiency level.】

【Binding Portal】(Current tier insufficient for binding. Please upgrade first.)

How to use the card was crystal clear.

Mo Lan thoughtfully reminded them, “Your current Magic Power levels should both be at Intermediate, so you’ll need to upgrade the cards to at least Intermediate before you can bind them.”

So Vasida and Sylph both chose to upgrade their card tiers.

100 Mana spent, and the character card went from Apprentice to Beginner.

Another 500 Mana spent, and the character card became Intermediate.

Several hundred points of Magic Power flowed into the cards. Vasida’s Devouring Stomach replenished her Magic Power consumption with stored food energy, so there was no visible change.

But Sylph’s energy Halo had dimmed considerably.

Fortunately, the Binding Portal had finally opened.