Mana's report confirmed what Luke had already felt through the bond. The power boost was real, substantial, and hitting an invisible ceiling.
Which meant the ceiling wasn't the limit. It was a puzzle.
"Interesting." Luke's expression shifted into something Mana had already learned to recognize: the scheming face. "Get comfortable with your new stats for now. I need to run another test."
"Aye aye, Master!" Mana snapped a playful salute with her staff, then caught the look in his eyes. "Wait, you already have an idea, don't you? You've got that face again."
"What face?"
"The one where you're about to do something that'll make me even more amazing than I already am." She grinned, twirling a strand of golden hair around her finger. "Not that I'm complaining."
Luke snorted. "Just go practice. Your attributes jumped fifteen percent and your mana recovery doubled. That's going to feel different in combat. Figure out the new rhythm."
"On it!"
Mana drifted to the far side of the room, staff extended, and began running through spell formations. Threads of dark energy wove between her fingers, faster and denser than before the Spell Tome. She could feel the difference in every gesture. The mana came easier, flowed smoother, responded quicker. Like switching from dial-up to fiber optic.
Meanwhile, Luke closed his eyes and sank into Simulated Crafting.
Target: Magical Hats.
His mental energy began its steady decline. The simulation unfolded in his mind, layer by layer, mapping out the construction process with mechanical precision.
「 Within the art of Dark Magic, there exists a category of special techniques known as "tricks." Dark Magician Girl, having studied under Dark Magician, has mastered these techniques as well. 」
「 Among these trick spells, Hat Trick: Magical Hats is one of Dark Magician Girl Mana's signature abilities. 」
The background locked in. The simulation iterated, refined, optimized. Progress climbed steadily toward a hundred percent.
When it got there, Luke didn't waste a second. He shifted straight into real-world construction, running the same pipeline he'd used for the Spell Tome. Background input, card art, material infusion.
A new card crystallized inside the Card Editor.
「 Construction successful. Mana Surge acquired. Level breakthrough to One-Star Commander! Second Card Spirit summon slot unlocked! 」
The notification barely registered before the physical sensation hit.
Luke's breath caught as a wave of energy detonated inside his chest. Not the gentle trickle he'd gotten from the Spell Tome. This was the accumulated pressure of two constructions, stacked on top of the exam's residual Mana Surge, finally reaching critical mass.
The breakthrough hit like a wall of water. His mana reserves didn't just expand. They transformed. The energy coursing through him became denser, wilder, carrying a current that made his nerve endings buzz. His spiritual perception sharpened so suddenly that he could sense Mana's practice drills across the room in perfect detail, every thread of dark energy she was weaving, every fluctuation in her mana output.
And in the back of his mind, a second slot opened. Like a door materializing in a wall that had been solid a moment ago. Empty. Waiting. Ready to hold another Card Spirit.
"Broke through." Luke flexed his hand, watching the residual energy crackle between his fingers before fading. Commander Realm.
Two summon slots meant two Card Spirits fighting simultaneously. Double the tactical options. Double the combo potential.
But also double the mana drain. Summoning and sustaining a Card Spirit wasn't free. Every second they existed on the field, they pulled from the Card Master's reserves. Two active spirits meant twice the upkeep. Balancing that consumption was a skill every Commander-level Card Master had to develop, and plenty never mastered it.
A problem for later. Right now, Luke had a new card to examine.
He pulled it from the Card Editor. The border was immediately, visibly different from the Spell Tome's green. This one was purple-red, rich and deep, like wine held up to firelight.
「 Magical Hats 」
Type: Counter Card
Effect: Can be actively triggered, or passively triggered upon receiving a lethal attack. Hides and relocates the designated target up to three times. Cooldown: 12 hours.
"Not an Equip Card. A Counter Card." Luke turned the purple-red card between his fingers. He'd assumed it would be the same type as the Spell Tome. Instead, the system had classified Magical Hats as its own distinct category.
Different color. Different type. Different function.
The effect was singular, same as the Spell Tome. But what an effect it was.
Three charges of concealment and relocation. Three times the target could be hidden and moved to a new position, making them effectively untouchable. That was three free escapes from death.
And the passive trigger was where it went from strong to obscene. If a lethal attack connected before the Card Spirit could react, Magical Hats would activate on its own. No input required. No reaction time needed. The card just saved you.
That changed combat entirely. A Card Spirit carrying Magical Hats could fight with reckless aggression, commit fully to offense, take risks that would normally be suicidal, because the safety net was always armed. Even against ambushes or sneak attacks, the Counter Card would fire automatically.
"Not bad at all." Luke weighed the card in his palm, satisfaction settling warm in his chest. "Twelve-hour cooldown is steep, but for a survival tool? Completely worth it."
He looked up. Mana had stopped practicing and was hovering nearby, eyes locked on the new card with barely contained curiosity.
"Ooh, another one? It's a different color this time!" She drifted closer, leaning in until her face was inches from the card. "What does this one do? Is it for me? Tell me tell me tell me!"
"It's for you." Luke held it out. "Same thing as before. Press it over your heart."
"Hehe, you're spoiling me, Master." Mana took the card with both hands, examined it for half a second with wide, sparkling eyes, then pressed it against her chest.
The purple-red card sank into her body. No resistance. Seamless absorption, identical to the Spell Tome.
Then the room pulsed.
A shockwave of raw power erupted from Mana's body, so sudden and forceful that Luke felt the air pressure in the room spike. Dark energy rolled off her in visible waves, her hair lifting in a wind that came from nowhere, her eyes blazing emerald-bright.
「 Dark Magician Girl Mana has successfully fused Spell Tome and Magical Hats. Quality upgraded to Perfect! 」
Luke's fist clenched so hard his knuckles cracked.
Yes.
The invisible ceiling. The wall that the Spell Tome alone couldn't break. One card type hit the cap. Two card types, Equip plus Counter, broke through it entirely.
Spell Tome plus Magical Hats. Green plus purple-red. Two different categories, fused together inside the same Card Spirit.
Quality upgrade. Collectible to Perfect.
"Whoa." Mana stared down at her own hands. Dark energy crackled between her fingers unbidden, dense and controlled, and the sheer volume of power circulating through her body had jumped so dramatically that she could feel it in every cell. "Master, I feel... I feel incredible. Like someone just took the brakes off."
She raised her staff and channeled a wisp of dark magic. What came out was twice as dense as anything she'd produced before the upgrade, condensed into a thread so tight it hummed audibly.
"Hehe... hehehehe!" A grin spread across her face, wide and slightly manic. "Oh, this is going to be FUN."
「 Dark Magician Girl 」
Race: Spellcaster
Quality: Perfect
Level: ★★★★★★ (Six-Star)
Equipment: Spell Tome, Magical Hats
Skills: Dark Magic Inheritance, Dark Magic Attack, Silence Seal, Dark Magic Burst
The star level hadn't changed. Still Six. But quality had jumped two full tiers, from Collectible to Perfect, and at the same star level, that translated into a significant combat power increase.
If Mana fought the Storm Sparrow again right now, Luke was certain the fight would be even more lopsided than before.
But the implications went far beyond one rematch.
"Hey, Mana." Luke's voice had gone quiet. "How many more of these do you think you could absorb?"
Mana blinked, pulled out of her power-testing euphoria. "Hm? More cards? I don't know... it doesn't feel like I'm full, if that's what you're asking. There's definitely room for more."
That was what Luke wanted to hear.
Perfect quality was a critical threshold in the card hierarchy. Beyond it lay Legendary, Epic, Mythic, and Divine, four tiers that most Card Masters considered theoretical. Reaching them under normal circumstances required an absurdly robust worldview as the foundation, along with top-tier materials and flawless execution.
But Luke wasn't operating under normal circumstances.
If Equip Cards and Counter Cards could push quality upward, and Mana's absorption capacity wasn't capped yet, then the road from Perfect to Legendary might not require rebuilding her from scratch. It might just require building more support cards and fusing them in.
And if that path worked for Mana, it would work for every Card Spirit he ever built. His cards would never become obsolete. No matter how far he advanced, no matter how much stronger his future creations were, his existing Card Spirits could always be upgraded alongside them.
There was also a broader implication. The fact that the Yu-Gi-Oh worldview could support this kind of layered evolution said something about the worldview itself. This wasn't a shallow framework that would cap out at the mid-tiers. A worldview that enabled quality stacking through support card fusion was deep enough, robust enough, to eventually produce cards at Legendary quality or above natively.
The Duel Spirits worldview wasn't just good. It was extraordinary. And Luke had barely scratched the surface.
"Master?" Mana floated up beside him, head tilted, reading his expression. "You've got that face again."
"Which face?"
"The one that says you just figured out something amazing and you're deciding how to use it to take over the world."
Luke laughed. Actually laughed, the kind that came from somewhere deep and genuine.
"Something like that, Mana. Something like that."
For every 500 Powerstones extra chapter.