"I had a feeling, but this is still a bigger jump than I expected." Luke studied Mana as she reopened her eyes, the last traces of the quality upgrade settling into her aura. "How are you feeling?"
Mana extended her hand and flicked her fingers through the air. Threads of dark mana spun out from her fingertips, splitting and recombining with a precision that hadn't been there an hour ago. She wove them into shapes, spirals, geometric lattices, each one more intricate than the last, her control so refined it looked less like spellcasting and more like a musician playing an instrument she'd practiced for decades.
"Like I just got back something that was always supposed to be mine." Mana closed her fist and the threads dissolved into sparkles. "Every spell I know feels... fuller. Deeper. Like I was working with a blurry copy before and now I've got the original."
Because of the backstory I wrote for her? Luke filed the thought away. When he'd constructed Mana's background, he'd deliberately written her as someone who'd trained under Dark Magician and learned from Silent Magician. Had the equipment fusion tapped into that potential? Unlocking power the backstory had already laid the groundwork for?
Possible. He'd need more data to confirm it.
Unfortunately, the remaining materials in his inventory weren't suited for more Equip or Counter Cards. And his mental energy was scraped thin from back-to-back Simulated Crafting sessions and two real constructions.
Further experiments would have to wait.
"Come on." Luke stood and held out his hand. "Let's get food. And we should probably get you some normal clothes for going out."
Crafting the Spell Tome and Magical Hats hadn't been as demanding as building a full Card Spirit, but they'd still eaten a solid chunk of time. Outside the window, the sun had already set. Stars were beginning to prick through the darkening sky, and the streets below were filling with evening foot traffic.
Magic Card Civilization ran on Card Masters, but ordinary people still made up the vast majority of the population. The two groups coexisted peacefully for the most part. Card Masters came from ordinary people, after all. The divide was social, not hostile.
"Clothes?" Mana took his hand and tilted her head, a mischievous glint creeping into her eyes. "Master, you know I can just do this, right?"
Before Luke could ask what "this" meant, Mana's combat outfit shimmered.
The blue-and-pink battle gear dissolved like watercolors washing off a canvas, replaced in the same instant by something entirely new. A fitted, off-shoulder dress in pale pastel pink-blue, long enough to brush her calves, snug enough to make every curve a declaration of intent. The color was softer than her battle look, more elegant, but the effect on her figure was somehow even more devastating.
Where the combat outfit said cute and dangerous, this dress said I know exactly what I'm doing and I'm enjoying every second of it.
Mana did a slow twirl, the hem of the dress flaring slightly, then stopped and posed with her chin resting on one finger.
"Well? What do you think?"
( IMG HERE )
Luke's brain needed approximately two seconds to come back online.
"...Convenient," he managed.
His eyes lingered, making no effort whatsoever to hide it, until a delicate pink blush crept across Mana's cheeks. She held the pose for another beat, then broke into a giggle and grabbed his arm.
"Hehe, come on! I'm hungry!"
Dinner was simple. A small place near home, nothing fancy. But even in the short time it took to eat, Luke got a live demonstration of the Mana Effect.
"She's gorgeous. Do we have someone that pretty living around here?"
"No way. First time seeing her. Should we go say hi?"
"Don't bother, man. That's a Card Spirit. Her master's a Card Master. Different world from us."
"Oh... a Card Spirit? Yeah, that explains it. If a girl that beautiful lived in this neighborhood, someone would've noticed by now."
Mana heard every word. Her smile went from warm to radiant, and she shifted from holding Luke's hand to wrapping both arms around his, pressing close.
"Someone's popular," Luke said.
"Jealous?" Mana beamed up at him.
Luke flicked her on the nose.
"Hey!" She scrunched her face in a pout that lasted exactly half a second before dissolving back into a grin. The arm-clinging, if anything, intensified.
The two of them walking through the evening streets, Mana glowing in her new dress, Luke looking thoroughly at ease with a beautiful girl attached to his arm... it was the kind of scene that made every single person in a fifty-foot radius contemplate their life choices.
Back home, Luke sent Mana off to clean up and settled into his workspace. His mind was already shifting gears.
"Spell Tome and Magical Hats pushed Mana to Perfect. That's a massive jump. But quality upgrades have a limit. Star level is where the real power lives."
Quality determined the ceiling within a given tier. But the tier itself was set by star level. A Perfect Six-Star card was incredible, but a Legendary Seven-Star card would leave it in the dust. If Luke wanted Mana to stay relevant as he climbed higher, he needed paths to raise her star level, not just her quality.
"Ritual Cards." He ticked off the first option mentally. "Mana can function as Dark Magician through Dark Magic Inheritance. A Ritual Card designed around that interaction could potentially trigger an evolution, push her star level up."
"Fusion Cards." The second option. "Different mechanism, same goal. Fuse Mana with compatible materials or another Card Spirit to create a stronger form."
Both paths existed in the Yu-Gi-Oh worldview. Both were theoretically constructible. He just needed time, materials, and more Simulated Crafting cycles.
But that was the long game. The short game was more pressing.
"I'm Commander Realm now. Second summon slot is open." Luke sorted through his remaining materials, organizing by type and grade. "One Card Spirit isn't enough going forward. I need a second card, and ideally one that synergizes with Mana."
Two independent fighters were good. Two fighters with built-in combo potential were exponentially better.
And if he was keeping his second card within the Yu-Gi-Oh worldview, which he absolutely was (spreading thin across multiple worldviews at this stage would be stupid), then the choice came down to which archetype paired best with Dark Magician Girl.
The answer was obvious.
"Red-Eyes."
The Red-Eyes Black Dragon archetype was one of Yu-Gi-Oh's foundational pillars. In terms of sheer support card volume, terminal evolutions, and derivative variants, Red-Eyes could stand shoulder to shoulder with Blue-Eyes White Dragon. Different playstyle, different identity, but equal depth.
And the crossover potential with the Dark Magician archetype was where things got truly disgusting.
Red-Eyes Dark Dragoon. The fusion of Dark Magician and Red-Eyes Black Dragon. A card so absurdly powerful that Konami had eventually banished it to the forbidden list.
"Red Dad got banned." Luke leaned back in his chair, a slow grin spreading across his face. "But there's no banlist here."
And in his hands, with Mana as the Dark Magician component?
"Not Red Dad. Red Mom."
The mental image was glorious. He savored it for a moment.
But the endgame was just that: an endgame. Right now, Luke needed to figure out the first step.
"Red-Eyes Black Dragon itself is probably Advanced tier. Seven Stars or above." He frowned. "Going by how Mana turned out at Six Stars, Red-Eyes could easily be the same level or higher. My mental energy definitely can't sustain an Advanced-tier construction yet."
The gap between Intermediate and Advanced cards wasn't a step. It was a cliff. Building Mana had been taxing enough at Six Stars. A Seven-Star card would demand exponentially more spiritual energy, more time, more sustained focus. If his recovery couldn't keep pace with the drain, the construction would collapse.
There was only one way to know for sure.
Luke closed his eyes and activated Simulated Crafting.
Target: Red-Eyes Black Dragon.