Chapter 148 – Card Magic

Chapter 148 – Card Magic

The young witches had never seen Sorceress Magic sold in such a manner. It had to be said… this was so very Mo Lan!

Vasida and Sylph stared at the words “Sorceress Magic” on the flyer: “(⊙o⊙)!”

How long had it been since Mo Lan went on early break? Just a little over a week? And she’d already figured out Sorceress Magic?

Even knowing that Mo Lan had been holed up in the Dormitory reading Mo Lan reading Mo Lan reading Mo Lan reading Mo Lan—even knowing she’d spent those days buried in Mo Lan reading Mo Lan reading Mo Lan—even knowing she’d spent those days buried in Mo Lan reading Mo Lan—even knowing she’d spent those days buried in 《The Path of the Sorceress》, they still found it incredible.

Just finishing the book alone should take several days!

This was way too fast!

Mo Lan’s flyer was certainly eye-catching, but unlike the previous card purchases, this time the price was listed in permanent Mana.

Even though it was only 3 Mana—cheaper than both Apprentice-level Book Magic and Contract Magic—permanent Mana, once spent, could never be recovered. It wouldn’t regenerate like temporary Mana; what decreased was one’s Mana ceiling.

The young witches’ current magical power, converted to Mana, hadn’t even reached a hundred yet! They had to spend carefully.

So for the time being, everyone just looked at the flyer’s contents with curiosity, but they weren’t nearly as impulsive as when they’d bought cards before.

The Card Magic’s functions were spelled out clearly on the flyer: store cards, purchase cards, and draw cards.

Cards were thin little things that fit easily into School Robe pockets, and they didn’t have that many cards to carry around anyway. It seemed like they didn’t really need the card storage function right now.

The card purchasing function was even less necessary—they could buy cards just fine without this Magic, simply by going to Mo Lan directly.

That function would only become useful after graduation.

Looking it over, the only function they were actually torn about was the card drawing feature.

Just then, Vasida was the first to speak up: “I’ll buy one!”

A fellow peer’s Sorceress Magic—she had to buy one just to see what her Magic was like.

They flipped the flyer over and, following the contract template on the back, wrote up a contract using the Golden Pen Technique.

Mo Lan’s Contract Mailbox immediately responded.

According to the filtering rules she’d set for the mailbox, any contract from a witch that followed her Card Magic contract template could be approved with a single thought.

The contract was finalized in no time.

“How do I use it?” Vasida looked at Mo Lan.

“Just think about Card Magic, or ‘card album,’ and it will appear,” Mo Lan said.

Vasida did as she said, and a deep purple energy vortex immediately appeared before her. Then a magnificent card and a phantom of a large book inlaid with Purple Gemstones flashed briefly, before everything transformed into an overly plain-looking brown leather book.

“It looks like Magic similar to Grimoires! Both summon a book.”

“This one starts as a physical book right away, but the cover is just too plain. Moira, can this one change its cover like a Grimoire?”

“Exactly! The vortex and phantom images at the beginning were so pretty—they totally don’t match this book cover!”

The watching young witches chimed in.

Having studied Mo Lan—having studied 《The Birth of an Exquisite Cover》, they now had refined standards and expectations for book covers.

They just felt that the moment this brown leather book appeared, the whole thing dropped a tier in class.

Mo Lan smiled. “The card shop has several card album skin cards. After purchasing and using them, you can change the card album’s appearance. You can also obtain them by drawing from the card pool.

“Right now this is just the Academy internal test version—many designs aren’t finalized yet and will be gradually upgraded later.

“But don’t worry about the Magic’s functionality. The internal test version actually has more perks, with higher drop rates in the card pool!”

This inspiration came from various game skins.

She was even planning to create limited-edition skin cards in the future, placing them exclusively in the card draw pool to encourage contractors to draw more! But that would have to wait until after graduation.

Right now, these were all ungraduated young witches with meager Mana reserves. Mo Lan had no intention of running too many wallet-draining events just yet.

Once she went traveling through the Wilds and sold her Sorceress Magic to others—that would be the time to roll out those events.

For now, she’d simply referenced 《The Birth of an Exquisite Cover》 and made a few appearance cards, placing them in both the card pool and the card shop.

They were just basic appearances, but still better than the brown leather album.

When Vasida opened the book, surprisingly, there wasn’t a single word inside. Instead, it projected a rectangular light screen above it.

A large purple frame contained three smaller purple rectangular frames.

The left frame had “Card Pool” written above it in Witch Script, with a grayish-white vortex swirling inside.

The middle frame read “Shop,” displaying miniature card images along with names and prices.

The right frame read “Card Album,” filled with light purple rectangular slots.

The entire light screen had no physical substance—it looked quite magical, resembling a magical aura, yet could be seen perfectly clearly even without energy perception.

Mo Lan took in the young witches’ amazed expressions. She didn’t even need to explain anything—the Card Magic interface’s beginner tutorial had already popped up on its own.

The entire light screen was overlaid with a gray filter, and then a dialog box appeared: “Begin beginner tutorial?”

Below were two option buttons, with a note beside them reading “Tap to select.”

Vasida looked at Mo Lan in surprise: “Tap? Tap these words?”

Mo Lan nodded.

Vasida tentatively poked her finger toward the “Yes” button, and the gray overlay on the light screen immediately cleared away in part.

At the very top, beneath the large “Card Magic” header, the Purple Gemstone area lit up.

The text on the Purple Gemstone—”0/10″—began to glow.

The young witches couldn’t help but gasp: “This is incredible!”

The corner of Mo Lan’s mouth curved upward.

The first time she’d seen Witch Magic, her reaction was probably much the same as the young witches seeing this light screen she’d modeled after Earth’s touchscreens for the first time.

In truth, this light screen—indeed, this entire Magic—was essentially a Card Magic tablet phone.

Contract Magic served as the phone signal, connecting each contractor’s Magic light screen to both her control screen and the Book of Cards.

It couldn’t be used for communication, but it could transmit card-related content.

Soon another dialog box appeared. An arrow pointed to the “0” with the prompt: “This represents your remaining gem coins.” Another arrow pointed to “10” with the prompt: “This represents your maximum gem coin storage capacity.”

Immediately after, yet another arrow appeared, pointing to two buttons beneath the Purple Gemstone. One read “Recharge” and the other read “Upgrade.”

“Tap Recharge to exchange 1 Mana or an equivalent amount of other energy for 1 unit of gem coins. Gem coins can be used to open the card pool, draw cards, and purchase cards.”

“Tap Upgrade to increase your gem coin storage capacity. 1 Mana of permanent Mana can increase the storage limit by 1,000 units of gem coins.”