Bonus Chapter
Morning.
Luke barely made it three steps past the school gate before the swarm hit.
Students from every year converged on him like he'd tripped an alarm. Seniors who'd watched the livestream. Sophomores who'd heard the rumors overnight. Freshmen who had no idea what was happening but followed the crowd because everyone else was running.
The unified exam was yesterday's news in the literal sense, but the hype hadn't cooled. If anything, sleeping on it had made things worse. Overnight, the story had spread beyond the people who'd watched the livestream into the broader student body, mutating and inflating with each retelling until Luke's performance had achieved the status of campus legend.
And legends attracted attention.
Within minutes, Luke had collected a small army of female students making varying degrees of subtle (and not-subtle) overtures. Even the ice-queen types who normally wouldn't look twice at a boy were suddenly finding excuses to be in his general vicinity.
"Luke, if you're free after school, I'd love for you to come over and help me with some Card Master study material." One girl stepped forward with the kind of bold eye contact that suggested "study material" was a creative interpretation. "My parents happen to be out tonight."
"Study material?" Another student in the crowd didn't even bother being diplomatic. "Girl, you don't want tutoring. You're just thirsty for the man himself."
Several middle fingers went up simultaneously. The crowd's energy was somewhere between a fan meet and a riot.
Fortunately, Mr. Tanner materialized out of the chaos with the precision timing of a teacher who'd been watching the gate from his office window.
"Alright, alright, break it up. Give the man some air."
The mob reluctantly parted. Not because they wanted to, but because Tanner was still a teacher, and some instincts ran deeper than celebrity worship.
"Thanks, Mr. Tanner." Luke straightened his collar, which had been pulled sideways by someone's overly enthusiastic grab. "You saved me. Again."
It wasn't that Luke was uninterested. The "private tutoring" offer was, objectively, the kind of scenario that showed up in the good chapters of certain novels he'd read in his past life.
But when you had Mana waiting at home, the concept of "settling for less" didn't really apply.
"Your fault for going viral," Tanner said with a smirk. "I saw you grinning back there, by the way. Don't pretend you weren't enjoying it."
Luke rolled his eyes. "You showed up at the gate the second I walked in. Principal Harlow sent you, didn't he?"
"Quick on the uptake!" Tanner snapped his fingers.
"Quick on the uptake? You were literally standing there waiting for me. A brick wall could've figured that out. Between what VP Graves said yesterday and you magically appearing the moment I step on campus, it doesn't take a genius."
"Fair point." Tanner shrugged, unbothered by Luke's tone. He'd learned yesterday that trading barbs with this particular student was a losing game, and he still had the emotional bruises to prove it.
He led Luke through the campus, taking a winding route that avoided the main corridors. Even so, heads turned as they passed. Teachers paused mid-conversation. Underclassmen pointed and whispered. A few sophomore girls waved. Luke was yesterday's exam champion and today's walking headline.
They arrived at the principal's office.
"There he is. The man of the hour." Grant Harlow rose from behind his desk with a warm smile. For a man whose reputation included years of frontline military service, he had a surprisingly easy way with people when he wanted to.
But the warmth lasted exactly two seconds before something else flickered across Harlow's face. Surprise. His eyes sharpened, and Luke caught the principal's gaze lingering on him a beat too long.
He noticed the breakthrough.
Luke had advanced to Commander Realm overnight. For an experienced Card Master like Harlow, the change in spiritual pressure was unmistakable.
Can a Six-Star card's Mana Surge really push someone through an entire realm? Harlow filed the question away. He'd never successfully built a Six-Star card at the Soldier level himself, so he had no frame of reference. But the evidence was standing right in front of him.
Vice Principal Graves was also present, standing to the side with her usual composure. She offered Luke a nod and what might, in extremely generous lighting, have been called a smile.
After Graves had filed her report about upgrading Luke's school reward on her own initiative, Harlow had approved it without hesitation. He'd even praised her for the decision. But Graves had caught something in his tone. A weight behind the words that went beyond simple approval. As if Luke's performance carried implications that she wasn't cleared to know about.
Whatever secret Harlow was keeping, not even an Emperor Realm Card Master was willing to speak it aloud. That told Graves everything she needed to know about its magnitude, and nothing about its content.
"Principal, you're going to make me blush," Luke said dryly.
"I'll spare you the recap. VP Graves covered the exam details with you yesterday." Harlow's expression settled into something more businesslike, though the warmth hadn't entirely left. He produced a card from his desk.
A Storage Card. But not like the one Graves had given him.
This one bore an engraved emblem on its surface. An unmistakable mark that Luke recognized immediately: the seal of Ashenvale City. In the entire city, only one institution was authorized to stamp that emblem onto Storage Cards.
The City Lord's Mansion.
"This is from City Lord Ashford," Harlow said, placing it on the desk between them. "Your reward for placing first in the unified exam."
Another Storage Card? Luke picked it up, suppressing the urge to comment on how his card collection was growing faster than his actual card collection. Though he had to admit, the things were convenient. Toss your stuff inside and travel light. No bags, no luggage. For ordinary people especially, Storage Cards were more popular than actual Magic Cards.
For Card Masters, the Card Editor was superior in every way: larger capacity, better security, impossible to steal. But Storage Cards had their niche.
Luke scanned the contents.
His eyebrows climbed.
The City Lord's Mansion did not mess around.
The package was similar in structure to Graves's school reward: mostly materials, with a cash bonus on the side. But the quality was in a different league. Where Graves's reward had topped out at blue-grade, the City Lord's package started at green and went all the way up to purple-grade.
Purple. The tier that could support Eight-Star card construction.
There were only two or three purple-grade pieces in the entire package, but even that small number represented a fortune. A single piece of purple-grade material was worth more than the entirety of the school reward Graves had given him yesterday.
No dragon materials, though. Luke felt a twinge of disappointment at that, but it passed quickly. He was being handed purple-grade crafting materials as a student. Complaining would've been obscene.
"You seem pleased." Harlow's eyes missed nothing. "Normally, the City Lord's maximum reward tier for the unified exam is blue-grade. Do you know why yours included purple?"
The question hung in the air.
To Luke's right, Mr. Tanner sucked in a breath. Purple-grade materials. Even for him, a working teacher and a Card Master with years of experience, his entire net worth probably didn't include more than a handful of purple-grade pieces.
Graves maintained her composure better, but a flicker of envy crossed her eyes before she could suppress it. She hadn't gained access to purple-grade materials until she'd broken through to Monarch Realm. And here was Luke, still in the rookie stage of his career, handling the same tier of resources she'd spent decades climbing toward.
for every 500 powerstones a bonus chapter