Card Apprentice Daily Log

Chapter 2547: Spiraling Lucine

Date: Unspecified

Time: Unspecified

Location: Myriad Realms, Card World, Central Region, Central Academic City, Morningstar University District, Morningstar University Campus, Garden of Beginning, Time Vestige, Morningstar University 2nd Campus

After finishing the modifications, I recalled my calamity clones back into me. Lucine had stopped whining by then, but she immediately began circling the chamber, examining every alteration I had made. With each adjustment she came across, she couldn’t help gasping, exclaiming, or sighing in disbelief. It was obvious she was impressed—though she would rather die than admit it out loud.

"Wyatt, when and where did you learn our university’s Time Expansion Array formation?" Lucine finally asked, her face turning serious. "As far as I know, no one outside the core members of Morningstar University even knows this array exists."

She wasn’t accusing me—she was assuming the worst: that Morningstar University’s precious formation had already been leaked to the rest of the five regions without their knowledge, and that I was one of the lucky thieves benefitting from that breach.

"I understood it after a glance. It’s not that hard," I replied, not bothering to sugarcoat anything. Lucine would believe whatever explanation she built in her own head anyway—and she’d settle on the idea that her university’s secrets had been stolen long before believing I simply figured it out on the spot.

"Why don’t you just say you created the Time Expansion Array formation?" Lucine snapped, exactly as I expected.

I truly didn’t understand this woman. Just minutes ago she was crying and begging for her life, and now she had the nerve to glare at me over an array formation. I couldn’t help feeling a bit sorry for her—she hadn’t shown this much backbone when she thought I was planning to kill under the guise of treating her, yet the moment she imagined someone stealing her university’s property, she immediately threw her gloves on and came at me.

Clearly, to her, Morningstar University was worth more than her life.

"I know what you’re thinking. But trust me, that’s not the case. Your university’s precious array hasn’t been leaked," I said, trying to stop her imagination from spiraling into catastrophe. "I really did figure it out at a glance. I might not look like it, but I don’t brag about my talent—I just tell the truth. If others feel like I’m exaggerating or lying, it’s not my problem but theirs."

Thanks to my Primordial Soul Pupils that were capable of seeing through the mysteries of an origin source, understanding a simple time expansion array formation was not only normal but nothing in comparison.

"..."

Lucine didn’t reply. She only glared at me, eyes narrowed, scrutinizing me as if she could peel back my soul and check the truth herself. After a long moment, she asked, "Can you swear that in the presence of the World’s Will?"

"Don’t push your luck," I warned her. "Just refine each body of the Triunion Four-Petal Viltronian Vines with one of your time rule meanings. If you’re unsure about anything, check the file I sent to your Grimoire. Hurry!"

I instructed her on what she needed to do to officially begin the treatment process. Lucine stared at me for a long moment before finally summoning her grimoire and scrolling through the file I had shared with her.

"What’s this ’V.’ in the mutated vine’s name?" she asked. In the file, the entry clearly read Triunion Four-Petal V. Vine.

"Don’t stress over minor details. Just get on with it," I replied, not bothering to explain. The truth of the Viltronian lineage was something only Jaya and I shared.

Besides, I had a strong suspicion that the Card Apprentices had already wiped out the Viltronians who had entered this world through the dungeons, all because the race was notoriously aggressive and violent. Based on my speculations their disappearance was no mystery—merely an expected outcome. They had been blessed with bodies anyone would envy, yet cursed with barely any intelligence to actually use or develop those nearly indestructible physiques.

"I thought I was only getting one new body," Lucine said, stunned by what I had managed to accomplish with nothing more than a mortal Four-Petal Vine. She couldn’t fathom how I had done it. Had I gotten this knowledge from somewhere? Had someone taught me? She simply couldn’t wrap her mind around it—just like she couldn’t accept that I understood the Time Expansion Array with a single glance.

"Aren’t you happy you’re getting three bodies for the price of one incarnation and one real body?" I asked. Once again, I choose to avoid answering her.

"Why can’t you just stop with the questions and do as I say? Especially when you already know I’m not going to answer?" I snapped when I saw Lucine gearing up to ask yet another question.

"So what if you don’t want to answer? If I want to ask, I’ll ask. If you don’t want to respond, then don’t. Why are you shouting?" Lucine shot back, her tone rising to match mine.

Her sudden pushback made me stop and stare at her. I decided to ignore her outburst believing the closer she grew to confronting the idea of dying during the treatment, the more volatile her personality became. Instead of arguing, I shifted my focus to finding a way to ease her mind. Answering her questions would help, but she would nitpick every tiny detail of my process—we’d be stuck here the entire day. I needed something stronger, something that would truly reassure her she wouldn’t die.

Maybe I should stay with her inside the Time Expansion Chamber throughout the entire process, guiding her moment by moment.

But that would be pure mental torture for me. Time expansion array uses time rule power to expanded time, depending on time rule power supplied one hour out here could be several billion years in time expansion chamber. She would have to spend several billion years inside the chamber to grow the Triunion Four-Petal Viltronian Vine to devil rank. For her, enclosed within the stone pot, it would pass like one long, hazy dream.

For me, it would be an eternity of suffering. And on top of that, with raw time rule power flooding the chamber, I wouldn’t be able to comprehend anything except space and time rules. I might be reclusive, but not to the extent of surviving billions of years doing nothing but comprehending those two rules.

With my mutant ego gem’s synchronization rate, I might even reach godhood in both in that period of time—but the price would be far too steep. I wouldn’t come out as the same person who walked in.

This wasn’t going to work.