Chapter 40: Sharing Cards

Chapter 40: Sharing Cards

Moran estimated that if a card were used individually, it wouldn't require magic or a contract as a medium; it would be just like using a magical object.

However, for her, this was a losing deal, as she wouldn't be able to receive an increase in her mana capacity as compensation.

Large-scale production and distribution were definitely out of the question—no matter how much mana she had, it wouldn't be enough to burn like that—but making two cards for her best friends was doable.

"Really?" Sylph and Vasida's eyes shone brighter than the midday sun.

Blinded by her companions' sparkling gazes, Moran gritted her teeth and said

"I'm not sure if a card like {Book of Cards}, which can guide the development of a talent manifestation, will work. How about I try designing one to test it?"

Her mana had, after all, recovered a bit since last night, and since she was only designing a card, 1 mana would be enough.

"Mhm! Mhm!" Vasida and Sylph nodded repeatedly.

As Moran took the card and began tinkering, the two of them even held their breath, fearing they might disturb her.

[Card Design: Unnamed Card 2]

—[Estimated Consumption: Infinite Mana]

—[Estimated Appearance: Appearance Template 1]

—[Estimated Function: Upon binding, can guide a witch to develop her own talent manifestation.]

"Strange!"

She had clearly only changed "guide oneself to develop the Book of Cards" from the original design into "guide a witch to develop her talent manifestation," yet the consumption had become unmeasurable.

Should she set a limit?

But talent manifestations didn't have ranks!

Right, witches did have ranks.

She modified it again, changing the estimated function to "guide Vasida (Intermediate Witch) to develop Devouring Stomach," and changed the card's name to {Devouring Stomach}.

This time, the mana consumption had an exact number: 1,200 mana, the same as her {Book of Cards}.

Just when she thought she had made progress, she summoned the Book of Cards, drew 1 mana from the purple gemstone into the slot, and added the design template for {Devouring Stomach}. Upon seeing the difficulty point in producing this card, she knew it would be impossible.

[Current Difficulty: Insufficient understanding of Devouring Stomach. It is suggested to learn about the functions and development knowledge of Devouring Stomach, or submit a complete sample of Devouring Stomach to compensate for the lack of data.]

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

Regarding magic progression knowledge, she could learn it herself through studying magic; for a witch with unlimited potential, it wasn't an impossible task.

However, the Devouring Stomach was Vasida's unique talent manifestation. Even Vasida herself didn't fully understand it yet, let alone anyone else.

By the time Vasida understood her talent manifestation well enough in the future, this card would no longer have any value in being made.

She tried changing the estimated function to Sylph's {Box of Myriad Kinds}, but the result was the same.

Moran could not possibly understand the knowledge of their talent manifestations before they did. As for the other solution—providing a complete sample of the Devouring Stomach or the Box of Myriad Kinds—that was even more impossible.

A witch's talent manifestation is unique; there is no second Devouring Stomach, nor a second Box of Myriad Kinds.

The reason she could produce the {Book of Cards} was likely because the Book of Cards itself belonged to her.

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

It seemed that producing cards with the Book of Cards required not only her mana as an energy source but also that she possessed the corresponding knowledge.

And this "corresponding knowledge" referred not only to her own knowledge reserves but also to the abilities and experience she mastered.

For example, with the {Book of Cards}, the "knowledge" aspect was provided by the Book of Cards itself.

Perhaps in the future, to supplement the knowledge of magic level progression, she wouldn't need to thoroughly research and quantify every detail and stage of every spell; she would only need to learn them herself, and the Book of Cards could capture the data.

If the corresponding knowledge were a physical object, such as the Devouring Stomach or the Box of Myriad Kinds, she could even submit a sample to the Book of Cards to supplement the data.

"Moran, how is it going?" Seeing that Moran had been dazed for a while, Vasida finally couldn't help but ask.

"It failed," Moran said. "I can't make a card that neither I nor the Book of Cards fully understands."

"It's okay! We can just study it slowly ourselves," Sylph comforted her. "Every witch goes through this. Your cards are originally part of your talent manifestation; it's normal that they can't be easily used by others."

"That's right! Even with witch magic, you can only share a portion of your talent manifestation's abilities! What you've done is already very impressive," Vasida added.

Moran wasn't as disappointed as Sylph and Vasida imagined.

Although it was a pity that the designs for {Devouring Stomach} and {Box of Myriad Kinds} failed and she couldn't help her friends, she hadn't come away empty-handed; at least she had learned some of the rules for the Book of Cards to produce cards.

Moreover... it was only that the guidance cards for talent manifestations lacked knowledge support and thus couldn't be made.

Moran cleared the slot, recovered the energy, and re-imported the {Character Card - Apprentice} template, even changing the text on the card face to Witch Script.

Thinking that Vasida and Sylph didn't understand the cards she created as well as she did, she added a card function introduction.

Then, she drew 20 mana from the purple gemstone.

Two {Character Card - Apprentice - Unbound} cards appeared in her hands

"I might not be able to make cards that guide you to develop your talent manifestations, but I can make {Character Cards}. I'll give these two to you; try binding them!"

As Vasida and Sylph held the cards, they suddenly realized they could understand the words on the card faces.

{Character Card} (Unbound)

[Level: Apprentice] (Can spend 100 mana, or other energy equivalent to 100 mana, to upgrade to Intermediate)

[Function: Upon binding, displays personal information in real-time, including name, race, rank, mana capacity, and magic level.]

[Binding Entry] (Exceeds card level, cannot bind. Please upgrade first.)

It was immediately obvious how to use the cards.

Moran gave a thoughtful reminder: "Your current mana levels should both be Intermediate. You'll need to upgrade the cards to Intermediate at least before you can bind them."

Thus, both Vasida and Sylph chose to upgrade the card levels.

After spending 100 mana, the {Character Card} changed from Apprentice to Intermediate.

After spending another 500 mana, the {Character Card} became Advanced.

As hundreds of mana were poured into the cards, the food energy stored in Vasida's Devouring Stomach compensated for the mana consumption, making it unnoticeable.

However, Sylph's energy aura dimmed significantly.

Fortunately, the binding entry finally opened.